Parmesan Cream Mussels

Mussels is one of my favorite seafood products. I my childhood, I tried mussels for a first time during vacationing at the Black Sea resort. We were roasting just harvested by our boys mussels on a metal sheet over the open pit fire. I think I still remember its taste - a bit fishy, bare-tasting with a pinch of salt, so chewy and earthy (funny, right, thinking it's stuff from a sea). That's how my love to mussel started. Now it developed into all-recipe-all-ways-excepting love. Yes, I have not had mussel dish I would not enjoy (at least yet!). Here is another recipe for mussels that I made recently. It's pretty rich dish with bechamel sauce and parmesan cheese on top. Although please note that bechamel I made are olive oil based thus presumably lighter than would be done in a classic way, with butter.

PARMESAN CREAM MUSSELS

Makes about 30 mussels

Ingredients:

1 package of frozen New Zeland mussels in a half-shell

1 small onion or 2 shallots 

3 cloves of garlic, peeled

1.5 cup heavy cream 

salt & pepper

5 tbs olive oil
2 tbs all-purpose flour
3-4 tbs grated parmesan cheese

- In a large frying pan, on a medium heat, cook finely chopped onion and minced garlic until fragrant and traslucent.

- Add flour, cook stirring for about 3 minutes or until flour starts to change color to light beige.

- Add heavy cream, stirring all the time with a whisk to get nice and creamy mixture. Lower heat and add more water, milk or chicken stock to get farely runny consistency. Keep in mind that sauce will thicken. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook for a couple more minutes. Do not let it boil and turn heat off before it is about to boil. Remove from heat, cool it down until warm.

 

- Preheat oven to 400F.

 

- On a baking sheet, distribute frozen mussels evenly. Put about 1 teaspoon of a warm sauce into each shell and sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese.

- Bake for about 20-30 minutes until golden crusted on a top. You may want to switch to broil function to get that nice crust faster.

- Enjoy with friends and some good white wine!

Onion, garlic and flour are cooking in olive oil.

Cream added.