Mussels with A White Wine Sauce

On Saturday it was my son's birthday. We had my bestest friend in the whole world over with her bestest family, including her dog. It was a great day. A slow, lazy, hazy,summer day that went by way too quickly. Kids in and out of the pool. Adults sitting around a table, laughing and talking. Beer bottles cluttering the table. Four dogs crashing around us from too much excitement.

She made her awesome Salsa. There is no Salsa like hers in the world and has made me despise the jarred stuff. She also made her yummy Asian Salad that includes almonds and sunflower seeds and just tastes so....natural but ethnic. LOVE IT!!

I decided it would be a perfect day to slow smoke a brisket. That's another post for another day. But while I slowly smoked that brisket for about 10 hours, I made some mussels for everyone to snack on.

I think mussels scare people and most people don't cook them. They love to eat them, but won't trust themselves to purchase and cook them. But I like to be daring in what I cook and found that mussels have become my staple finger food to make with company or on vacation. It really is so simple. I make them two different ways and always get compliments. They are demolished. No left-overs ever.

Here is one way....the way I decided to make them on Saturday. I made a whole serving pan loaded with them. There was not one left.

The first thing you need to do with mussels is make sure they are not dead. If they are dead, they are no good. So, you must go through each and every mussel carefully. This is probably the most time consuming. You look for cracks. You look for broken shells. If they are opened, you give them a couple of squeezes to see if they will shut. A mussel will "clam up", so to speak if they are still alive. If not, toss it along with the broken/cracked ones. When in doubt, throw it out. You want your guests to be wowed...not sick.

My mussels come pretty clean, but occasionally you have to give them a little scrub and even remove beard. Once they are cleaned, de-bearded, and picked through...you are ready to go.

In a shallow pan, I melted butter with some Olive Oil.


About a little more than half a stick. I diced some onions and tossed them in.


Some garlic. Lots of garlic. Some fresh Italian Parsley which I chopped up. Then....white wine. A few turns of the pan with the white wine.

I turned up the heat and let the wine boil a bit and reduce down. Next came the juice of one lemon. Let it bubble for another few seconds or so, to get all the flavors to come together.

Then, gently slide those mussels in. Spread them out, then put a lid on it. Turn down the heat and let them cook for maybe....two minutes? They cook very fast. Take a peek and see how many are opened. If there is still more to be opened, return the lid and give the pot a little shimmy shake.

Don't let it cook too long. Not all the mussels will open. If you let it cook too long, the mussels will not have the right texture. They'll be over cooked. You want them just right.

So, after a couple of minutes, when most of them have opened, remove them from the pan into a serving bowl or tray. Something with sides, because you are then going to take that wonderful white wine and butter broth and pour it all over the top of the mussels.



Any mussels that did not open, send to the garbage can. The rest of them can be eaten. And devoured. Demolished. Enjoyed.


And you will look like the most amazing host ever.

On a side note, you can also boil up some spaghetti and serve this over it. This will make a wonderful dinner as opposed to finger foods.

Just a quick apology for the bad photos and lack of photos. This slow, lazy, hazy day of summer also involved Coronas. And a bottle of wine. Maybe some vodka with lime. Maybe.