We bought a kilo of frozen New Zealand greenlip mussels ($7) over the weekend at Ai Hoa Market in L.A. Chinatown. The brand was Sanford Sustainable Seafood (http://live.isitesoftware.co.nz/sanford/).
Today I cooked half of them, very simply: I sauteed a half-cup or so of minced shallots in a tablespoon of butter, added a cup of white wine (Charles Shaw chardonnay) and the frozen mussels, and simmered them with the lid on until they were done. Then I served them with some Berbere bread from Elat Market.
We added some lemon-garlic spaghetti (with Sciabica olive oil, thanks Dad!) and a salad with lettuce, mung bean sprouts (aka Asian iceberg lettuce), a handful of salted fennel tops, and tangerine vinaigrette. Also a couple of glasses of the chardonnay that I’d opened.
Seriously, these were the best mussels either of us have ever had. Big and juicy, just a little chewy, very clean flavoured, with an incredibly rich, complex, almost mushroomy aroma and a lingering sweetness about them. The broth was heavenly. I cannot overstate how good these mussels were — and I wasn’t even all that terribly hungry, as I’d already taken the edge off with the salad, so it wasn’t just that. I could eat so many of these. I’m noting it here so that I remember the brand and store.
Also, the Charles Shaw chardonnay put in a lackluster performance when we first tried it with pasta carbonara, but in this dinner it was excellent. It seems to suit seafood and citrus flavours very well.
