The Cooking Ninja

After my great success with Moules Marinière, I decided to try cooking some of these clams again, but in a different way. I was curious to see if there was any asian recipe for mussels and as it turns out one of my thai-cooking book had an answer to that question

Steamed Mussels Thai Style

(from Thai Cooking)

Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 1 kg mussels
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 medium onion (chopped)
• 4 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 2 stems lemon grass (chopped - white part only)
• 1 or 2 tsp red chillies (chopped)
• 1 cup white wine or water
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 cup fresh Thai basil leaves (roughly chopped)

Directions

1. Wash the mussels under cold, running water. Pull out any fibrous beard and scrape off any barnacles with a knife. Discard any open ones that do not close when tapped or those with broken shells. Put the cleaned ones aside in a strainer to drain off water.
2. Heat the oil in a wok or large pan, add the chopped onions, garlic, lemon grass and chillies. Cook it for about 4 minutes over low heat, stirring it occasionally.
3. Add the wine and fish sauce to the wok and cook it for 3 minutes.
4. Add the mussels to the wok and toss well.
5. Cover the wok and increase the heat. Cook it for 3 to 4 minute or until the mussels open.
6. Add the chopped basil and toss well.
7. Serve with steamed rice.

The Verdict

Personally, I was expecting it to taste very different from Moules Marinière. In the end, they taste quite similar except that the Thai version is very aromatic and spicy due to the lemon grass, basil and the chillies. The sauce was delicious and to my surprise, my 1 year old likes it very much and was happily accepting one spoonful after another. Apparently she doesn't mind a bit of chili.