Sweet summer time. Which means beer and seafood. Well, as far as I’m concerned, it means beer and seafood. I saw this post from You Stay Hoppy Austin with a recipe for mussels steamed with beer. This caught my attention and I couldn’t think about anything else. I was so excited make these mussels. I adapted the recipe just a tad and served the mussels with some creamy asparagus pasta.
First, I started off making the creamy asparagus pasta.
You’ll need:
Whole Wheat Angel Hair Pasta
Ricotta
Asparagus
Lemon
Salt and Pepper
Slice the asparagus into bite sized pieces. I used about half a bunch of asparagus for 7 servings…
Boil the pasta until al dente. Strain water from pasta and put back into pot. Add the sliced asparagus and about 3/4 a cup of ricotta.
Squeeze in the juice of half a fresh lemon.
Mix all together and cover. Let that sit while you go to work on the mussels.
For the mussles, you’ll need:
1/2lb mussels per person (I made 3lbs)
1 stick of butter
2 large leeks
1 large white onion
6 cloves of garlic
2 loaves of french bread
12oz of Shine Ruby Redbird Beer
I grilled the french bread… you could toast it in the oven too. Butter both sides of the french bread slices.
Once they are nice and toasty, flip them over.
I put all the grilled french bread into a large bowl for serving family style. Now, moving onto the mussels!
Wash and slice up the stalks of 2 large leeks.
Dice up a large white onion.
Now, get this Shiner Ruby Redbird beer ready! I chose this beer because it’s seasonal and local… and delicious!
In a large skillet… I actually used a wok… sautee the onions with butter until translucent.
Add the leeks and diced garlic into the pan. Sautee for another minute then it’s time to add the mussels!
This is how you will take home your precious mussel cargo. Keep the plastic bag open because you want the mussels to be able to breathe. Yes, they are still alive. Yes, I felt like a murderer.
The fishmonger at Central Market gave me a few tips:
If the mussel is a little open like the shown above, gently tap it on the counter. If the shell closes, then the mussel is still alive and still ok to eat. If the shell does not close, it means the mussels has died and you should toss it.
PS- nice mani Miss K!
Add the mussels to the pan. Pour in the beer. Sautee for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add more butter if needed. Be sure all the mussels take a turn on the bottom of the pan, where they can be submerged in the beer butter broth.
As the mussels cook, their shells will open widely like this. That’s how you know they are done.
Delicioso!
Time to eat up!
I turned these old tin bundt pans upside down and use them to serve the mussels. I grabbed some cute fondu sticks and used those for getting the mussels out of their shells, since I didn’t have those little tiny forks.
Perfect summertime dinner, family style!
Happy little family of friends!
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