Mussels and Frites… It’s what’s for #dinner.

We’re now deep in Lent season and if you’re like me, you hate having to resort to pasta and cheese dishes for Friday night meals. If you Google search “Lenten meals” you’ll come across recipes for mac and cheese, cheese enchiladas, grilled cheese sandwiches, meatless spaghetti, etc. All of those are red flags for me. Particularly because D and I are limiting the amount of processed foods and dairy we eat.

So… that leaves us with seafood! Lots and lots of seafood. (Minus crab and shrimp because D’s allergic… Bummer.) D loves to say he “likes to sea-food and eat it”. Haha. He’s a dweeb. My special dweeb.

One Friday night we were tossing ideas around on what to have for dinner, and I told him I wanted mussels. There’s a really great mussel bar down the street from our apartment he suggested, and though it’s a great place to hang out and have a meal, I wanted to make steamed mussels myself. So, D being a great sport, agreed to my foodie experiment and took me to Whole Foods to buy PEI mussels and other ingredients.

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Ingredients

  • 2 shallots, diced
  • 1 small white onion, diced
  • 1 celery stalk, thinly sliced – I didn’t have any fennel but you could substitute that for the celery
  • 5 gloves of garlic, minced – I probably used a whole head of garlic. I like garlicky mussels.
  • 1 stick of butter – I used ghee instead
  • 4 pounds of PEI mussels, clean and debeard
  • 1.5 cups of white wine
  • 1.5 cups of chicken broth
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 cup of fresh parsley, chopped

Directions

  • Using a decent stock pot, turn the burner on medium heat and melt the butter.
  • Once the butter is melted, add the shallots and onions. Cook until transparent. Then go ahead and add the garlic and celery.
  • Afterwards, go ahead and add the white wine. Then add the chicken broth. Stir and season with salt and pepper.
  • Once to your liking, throw in the mussels and cover the pot. Let the mussels cook for about 7 minutes, or until all of them are open and cooked. When they are cooked, throw in the chopped parsley, then serve.

The end result –> DELICIOUS! So far the best Friday night meal during this Lent season. D was a little apprehensive about me making them, but he copped out to actually liking homemade steamed mussels over those at the mussel bar down the street. ALSO, who knew mussels were super easy to make???? Dinner was ready in 30 minutes.

If you need a quick meal, or need to impress someone (or need a simple dish for a dinner party), try making mussels and serve them with frites or crusty bread. You’re welcome.

‘Til the next time.
– E