Coconut Curry Bliss

Coconut Curry Mussels

Mussels are one of my favorite things to eat in the summer.  One bite and I am transported to some fabulous vacation spot sipping wine, picking mussels from their shells, not a care in the world.  They are delicious cooked in any sauce that involves wine and butter.  Of course, that means I always need crusty bread with my mussels because wine and butter should NEVER go to waste. 

One of my favorite mussel sauces is a coconut curry sauce.  I fell in love with this style at one of my favorite restaurants in Buffalo, NY – the Empire Grill.  They have fantastic food in a chic, urban style restaurant.  It actually opened while we were living in Buffalo and was only two minutes from our apartment, so we frequented the restaurant and became rather familiar with their menu.  Their coconut curry mussels were one of my favorite items on their menu (along with the pomegranate martini – they make THE BEST pomegranate martini!).  While missing the Empire Grill this past weekend, we decided to recreate their mussels.  I think we came pretty darn close.  Here’s what we did:

Ingredients
Mussels (we buy them in a 2 lb. mesh bag at the grocery store)

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons butter

1 Serrano pepper

½ Stalk lemon grass, sliced

½ Cup onion, diced

2 Cloves garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons Thai red curry paste

1 (14 oz.) Can coconut milk (we used Thai Kitchen’s Lite Coconut Milk)

1 Cup white wine

3 Tablespoons cilantro (leaves and stems), chopped

2 Teaspoons basil, chopped

Salt

Bread, for dipping

Step 1

If you have never prepared mussels before, let me prepare you for what I did not know until I made them my first time.  They are alive.  At least, the edible ones are alive.  Don’t worry, the won’t snap their shell on your finger or anything scary like that (which is what I imagined my first time!).  But you do want to test them to be sure they are living.  So rinse the shells under cold water to clean them, make sure their shells stay firmly shut or stay closed when you shut them, and pull out any “beard” that is sticking out of the shell.  Then put each cleaned mussel in a big bowl of cold water.  Discard any mussels that do not stay closed or any with cracked shells.

Step 2

It’s veggie prep time now!  Using gloves, clean as much of the ribs and seeds from the Serrano as you would like, keeping in mind ribs and seeds = heat.  If you don’t like the heat at all, use a jalapeno instead.  Small dice the Serrano once you clean it.  Thinly slice the lemon grass, dice the onion and mince the garlic.  While you are at it, you should probably just chop the cilantro and basil, but keep these separate.

Step 3

Now it’s time to start cooking!  Melt butter with the oil in a large lidded pot over medium high heat.  We obviously do not want the lid on right now, but it will be necessary later, so make sure the pot has a lid.  When the butter has melted and the oil has heated, add the Serrano, lemon grass and onion.  Sauté the veggies until they begin to soften (approximately 3 minutes) and then add the garlic.  Let this cook for another minute and then add the Thai red curry paste.  Stir the veggies until the curry paste completely coats them.  Now add the coconut milk and wine.  Mix the sauce together and then taste it.  I thought it needed some salt at this point, so I added it.  If you don’t need salt, then yay for you and your blood pressure! J  Cover the pot and bring it to a boil.

Step 4

When the liquid boils, turn the heat back to medium low and add the mussels (minus the water the mussels have been swimming in).  Stir the mussels to coat them in the sauce and then cover the pot and let the mussels simmer/steam.  They should open in 4 – 6 minutes.  When the mussels have opened, pour them – sauce and all – into a serving bowl.  Sprinkle the fresh herbs over the mussels.  Serve them with the bread and enjoy!

Gastronome's Note:  Please, please do not eat any mussels that stay closed after steaming!  They can make you sick!