Beginner cooks and seafood fans will be happy to learn how to cook frozen mussels so that they retain their juiciness, remain soft and tender. Versatile recipes will allow you to find a use for a valuable product and enjoy the great taste of the resulting dishes.

What to cook with mussels?

Recipes with mussels can be simple and concise or sophisticated and multi-component.

1. Mussels can be fried in an oiled pan, adding your favorite spices, garlic or onions if desired.
2. Boiled clams are used for independent serving with sauces, added to salads, and other multi-component culinary compositions.
3. Mussels in shells are often baked in the oven or added to soups, paella.
4. Peeled frozen seafood is an ideal component for cooking a marine version of pilaf, risotto, pizza, pasta, julienne and other dishes.

How to cook frozen mussels in shells?

1. Shells can be boiled for 7 minutes in a small amount of water, or using a mixture with the addition of white wine, beer, fresh herbs, all kinds of seasonings and spices. During the heat treatment, all shells should open. Unopened specimens should be discarded.
2. Stew delicious seafood in tomato sauce with onion, garlic, spices.
3. Clams frozen in shell halves are often baked under creamy and tomato sauces with cheese, garlic, and herbs.
4. First courses with mussels or all kinds of stews and rice compositions are tasty and rich.

How to cook frozen mussels without shell?

Knowing how to properly cook frozen mussels without a shell, you can practice a lot of complex recipes with boiled or fried clams or just enjoy their amazing delicate taste.

1. When using a raw-frozen product, it is cooked for 7 minutes. If the clams are frozen already boiled, then the heat treatment time should be minimized. You can boil or fry them for 2-3 minutes.
2. Mussel meat, if boiled or fried with spices, will be a great ingredient for creating all kinds of simple and delicious salads.
3. Peeled clams are added to soups, pilaf, pizza, other dishes and snacks.
4. Thawed and boiled mussel meat can be easily marinated in a mixture of oil, lemon juice, herbs and all kinds of seasonings and spices. It is delicious to add a little soy sauce to the marinade. A similar preparation is served as an independent snack or used to make salads.

Pasta with mussels in creamy sauce

Pasta with mussels in a creamy sauce will be a great nutritious and tasty dish for everyday diet and meals. It will be possible to prepare such a culinary masterpiece in a matter of minutes: while the pasta is being cooked, an appetizing gravy with shellfish will be ready, which remains to be supplemented with cheese and herbs.

Ingredients:

• mussels - 600 g;
• pasta - 450 g;
• cream - 400 ml;
• tomatoes - 3 pcs.;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• vegetable oil - 70 ml;
• dried basil - 1 teaspoon;
• cheese - 150 g;
• salt pepper.

Cooking

1. Mussels are defrosted, spread in heated oil and fried for a couple of minutes.
2. Garlic, basil, grated or chopped peeled tomatoes are added, simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Pour in the cream, season the sauce to taste, heat to a boil, transfer to the boiled pasta.
4. Serve a hot dish with grated cheese and herbs.

Pilaf with mussels

Like all dishes with frozen mussels, pilaf is prepared quickly, does not take much time and at the same time pleases with excellent taste. The classic vegetable composition of onions and carrots can be supplemented with diced or striped bell peppers, green frozen or fresh peas, sweet corn.

Ingredients:

• mussels - 350 g;
• rice - 250 g;
• carrots and onions - 1 pc.;
• garlic - 1 head;
• vegetable oil - 70 ml;
• wine - 0.5 cups;
• boiling water - 0.5 l;
• salt, pepper, zira, paprika, ground ginger.

Cooking

1. Fry onions and carrots in butter.
2. Add spices, spices, unpeeled garlic cloves, fry for 5 minutes.
3. Lay the mussels, pour in the wine and let the alcohol evaporate.
4. Fall asleep rice, warm up to transparency, salt to taste.
5. Boiling water is poured in, rice with mussels and vegetables is cooked under the lid until moisture is absorbed.

Soup with mussels - recipe

The following recipe is for those who do not yet know how to cook frozen mussels first. Appetizing, rich and fragrant soup with shellfish meat will satisfy the feeling of hunger and delight the taste buds of gourmets and seafood lovers. Smoked bacon can be replaced with brisket or loin.

Ingredients:

• mussels - 350 g;
• potatoes - 250 g;
• leek - 1 pc.;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• vegetable oil - 50 ml;
• wine - 0.5 cups;
• cream - 250 ml;
• water - 750 ml;
• salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley.

Cooking

1. In hot oil, fry the leek, chopped garlic and parsley until soft.
2. Add slices of lard, fry, stirring, for another 10 minutes.
3. Lay the thawed mussels, pour in the wine, warm up for 5 minutes.
4. Add cream, simmer the sauce for another 7-10 minutes.
5. Potato cubes are boiled in a saucepan with water, cream sauce with shrimp is laid.
6. Season the soup with mussels with salt, spices, warm up for a minute.

Mussels fried with onions

Incredibly delicious mussels with onions fried in a pan with butter. Instead of lime, you can take a lemon, and replace the olive oil with refined sunflower oil. Often, the dish is supplemented at the end of frying with fresh chopped parsley, basil, dill, thyme, or a dry mixture of aromatic herbs.

Ingredients:

• mussels - 0.5 kg;
• onions - 2 pcs.;
• lime - 0.5 pcs.;
• olive oil - 50 ml;
• salt pepper.

Cooking

1. Fry the chopped onion in hot oil until golden brown.
2. Add defrosted mussels, simmer for 5 minutes with stirring, season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. To serve, transfer the fried clams with onions to a dish, pour over lemon juice.

Salad with mussels - recipe

Salad with frozen mussels will effectively complement any meal. The appetizing bright appearance of the snack is complemented by its excellent taste characteristics. In addition to the proposed vegetable set, you can use sweet bell peppers, ideally in different colors, and add a little salad onion for piquancy.

Ingredients:

• mussels - 200 g;
• tomatoes - 2 pcs.;
• cucumber - 1 pc.;
• arugula - 100 g;
• avocado - 1 pc.;
• olives - 50 g;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• lemon juice - 1 tbsp. spoon;
• salt pepper.

Cooking

1. Boil, drain and cool the mussels.
2. Add chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado pulp, arugula, olives.
3. Finely chopped garlic is laid, dressing is poured from oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, mixed.

Mussels baked with cheese

Mussels are ideally combined with cheese, especially if you bake them in the oven with the addition of a spicy creamy sauce. To execute the recipe, you will need large frozen clams in shell halves, which will need to be thawed at room conditions or on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator compartment.

Ingredients:

• mussels in shells - 0.5 kg;
• cheese - 250 g;
• cream - 250 ml;
• garlic - 2-3 cloves;
• onions - 0.5 pcs.;
• flour - 1 tbsp. spoon;
• olive oil - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• salt pepper.

Cooking

1. Finely chopped onion and garlic are fried in oil.
2. Pour in the cream, season the gravy to taste, thicken with flour, stir in half of the grated cheese.
3. Thawed shells with clam meat are laid out on a baking sheet, a spoonful of gravy is added to each and sprinkled with cheese chips.
4. Bake with cheese for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.

Mussels fried with garlic

Cooked mussels with tomatoes and garlic in a pan can be a great snack on their own, which will be nice to enjoy with a slice of fresh bread. In addition, the resulting dish will effectively complement the boiled pasta, in which it will not be superfluous to add grated cheese and herbs.

Ingredients:

• mussels - 0.5 kg;
• tomatoes - 3 pcs.;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• olive oil - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• salt, pepper, basil and parsley.

Cooking

1. Sliced ​​onion is fried in oil.
2. Add chopped garlic, and after a minute, thawed mussels.
3. Fry until moisture evaporates, after which chopped tomatoes without skin are added.
4. They season the dish to taste, warm it up for 10 minutes, flavor it with chopped parsley and basil, let it brew a little.

Pizza with mussels - recipe

The following recipe will help you learn how to properly cook frozen mussels, so that even non-special seafood fans consume the dish with pleasure and appetite. To do this, you just need to bake a ruddy and fragrant pizza. Shellfish meat is harmoniously combined with olives, tomatoes and mozzarella.

Ingredients:

• pizza dough - 500 g;
• mussels - 250 g;
• tomatoes - 2 pcs.;
• tomato sauce and mayonnaise - 3 tbsp. spoons;
• olives - 10-12 pcs.;
• mozzarella - 80 g;
• hard cheese and greens.

Cooking

1. Mussels are boiled or fried in a pan.
2. The dough is rolled out and laid on a baking sheet, greased with a mixture of mayonnaise and tomato.
3. Clam meat, tomato slices, olives, mozzarella are laid out on top.
4. Sprinkle the appetizer with grated cheese and send it to the oven.
5. After 20 minutes, the finished one is sprinkled with herbs and served at the table.

Risotto with mussels - recipe

The popular one turns out to be incredibly tasty if you cook it with mussels. For the execution of the recipe, you will need round-grain arborio rice, which is well boiled and has a mild taste. The constant component in this case is dry white wine, which must be of high quality.

Ingredients:

• mussels - 350 g;
• rice - 200 g;
• wine - 100 ml;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• olive oil - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• parmesan - 50 g;
• broth - 3-4 cups;
• salt, pepper, Provence herbs, herbs.

Cooking

1. Fry crushed garlic in oil.
2. Add the onion, brown and lay the rice.
3. Warm up for 2 minutes, pour in the wine, let it soak.
4. The broth is poured in portions, each time allowing the liquid to be completely absorbed by the rice.
5. Season the dish to taste, add defrosted clams.
6. Cook for another 5 minutes, serve with parmesan and herbs.

Julienne with mussels - recipe

Another recipe for the effective use of your favorite clams will be presented below. With special enthusiasm, he will be received by fans of julienne. If desired, the composition of the dish can be supplemented with medium-sized chopped fried onions, which are often used in the preparation of the classic version of the dish.

Mussels are a unique cocktail of substances beneficial to human health. This is a delicacy that is ideal for those who want to keep their figure without harm to health, and for those who want to regain their lost shape.

Mussels: cooking recipe

Mussels are edible shellfish. True, they do not eat them completely, but only muscles with a mantle and entrails. They are rich in protein, iron, phosphorus, calcium, zinc, iodine, vitamins, and they also have enough fat and carbohydrates, so mussel dishes are considered very nutritious.

If you purchased raw mussel meat, then first you need to rinse it so that there is no sand left, after which the meat should be boiled or fried. Keep in mind that adding a lot of spices or sauce can spoil, or rather, interrupt the excellent taste of the shellfish.

Mussels in shells are cooked in water, white table wine or broth for several minutes until the shells of the clams open in the pan. Those shells that have not opened should be thrown away. Before you start cooking mussels, the shells should be thoroughly cleaned of algae, and then put in a bowl of cold water and rinsed several times to get rid of any remaining sand. Ready mussels should be eaten immediately after cooking.

How to cook frozen mussels?

• In order to properly cook frozen mussels, you need to clearly know in what form they were creolized. If they are boiled-frozen, then they can simply be reheated or boiled in a small amount of water for 5 minutes. If the mussels are raw-frozen, then they are supposed to be cooked for up to 7 minutes.
• Defrost them no more than 1 time, because it is a perishable product. Even when choosing mussels, make sure that no liquid leaks are visible in the package.
• Leave frozen unpeeled clams to thaw in the air, and then place under cold running water and rinse them well. Next, heat treat - boil for 2 minutes in plenty of water. Dip the boiled mussels in cold water, then bring to a boil again. This method of cooking allows you to save all the minerals and vitamins contained in the delicacy, and at the same time get rid of toxic substances. After cooking, the mussels will open themselves, and it will not be difficult to remove the meat with a knife from the shells.
• It is also easy to cook peeled mussels. They need to be poured into a pot of cold, salted water and wait until it boils and the surface is covered with foam.
• Do not cook mussel meat for a long time, it becomes tough and loses all its useful substances.

Do you want to cook deliciously peeled mussels without spending a lot of time? Easily!

Compound:

• mussels - 400 g
• garlic - 2 cloves
• table wine - 250 ml
• butter - 30 g
• shallots - 2 g
• high fat cream - 50 ml
• parsley - 15 g
• a pinch of curry - 15 g

Cooking:

1. Finely chop the shallot, garlic and parsley. Transfer this mixture to the heated skillet. After a while, add the washed, peeled mussels. Pour in the wine slowly, stirring all the time. Then cover the pan with a lid and simmer for a few more minutes.
2. Wait for the mussels to open and transfer them to a saucepan. Remove the ones that don't open. Fill the dish with cream. Add some curry, pepper, salt and butter. Mix well and let cook for another 5 minutes. Pour the finished dish with the resulting sauce and serve.

Mussels in Korean - an unusual recipe, not at all difficult to perform.

Compound:

• mussels - 500 g
• onions - 3 heads
• soy sauce - 50 ml
• honey - 1 tbsp
• hot red pepper
• nutmeg
• coriander
• black pepper

Cooking

1. Defrost the mussels and rinse them thoroughly under cold water. Boil for five minutes, drain in a colander. Leave the water to drain.
2. Peel the clams, then the onions. Cut it into half rings, salt, sprinkle with a few drops of lime and leave to marinate. While the onion is cooking, add the nutmeg with the tip of a knife to the soy sauce.
3. Other spices - to taste. Mix lime juice and honey and heat well. Then combine the clams, onion and sauce. Sprinkle everything with red pepper, mix - and refrigerate. Mussels in Korean are eaten only cold.

Before cooking, mussels should be thawed, preferably in the microwave, to speed up the process. But often they are laid out in dishes for cooking and frozen.

Unusually delicious are clams fried in olive oil with the addition of garlic, onions and celery. In this case, only vegetables need to be fried, and mussels are stewed with them only after the vegetables become golden in color and sour cream and white wine are added to them.

Mussels stewed in this way can be added to various dishes. For example, you can make a salad of squid and asparagus with the addition of mussels, use them as a savory pizza topping.

You can diversify the family's daily menu by preparing mussels in batter. To do this, mix milk, sugar, flour and egg yolk. The protein is whipped into a thick foam and added to the dough. Peeled mussels are dipped in batter and fried in a large amount of vegetable oil. Put the finished dish on the wings of mussels, decorating it with herbs and lemon slices.

Mussel dishes: original recipes

From mussels you can cook many interesting dishes. But even the most ordinary and familiar with the addition of shellfish will acquire a unique taste.

Compound:

• rice - 1 cup
• butter - 40 g
• carrots - 1 pc.
• onion - 1 pc.
• tomato paste - 1 tsp
• bay leaf, salt and pepper - to taste

Cooking

1. Boil the clams in salted water. Do not throw away the water in which they were boiled, it will come in handy! Dip peeled and grated carrots, peeled and finely chopped onions into the oil.
2. The secret of the dish is that rice should also be in the pan, fry it along with vegetables. When the onion turns golden, add 2 cups of water in which the mussels were boiled to the pot, put the tomato paste and bay leaf, salt and pepper. The fire must be small.
3. When the rice is almost done, add the mussels. Serve the dish hot, after decorating it with herbs.

Compound:

• mussels - 600 g
• fillet of sea bass and haddock - 150 g each
• crab meat - 150 g
• white wine - 500 ml
• onion - 2 heads
• olive oil - 5 tbsp. l.
• red and yellow sweet pepper - 150 g each
• meat broth - 500 ml
• black pepper
• Bay leaf
• thyme

Cooking

1. Wash the mussels with a brush. Boil for 4 minutes in a small amount of salted water and drain in a colander. Throw away unopened shells, remove the meat from the remaining ones, with the exception of 6 pieces.
2. Cut the fish into slices, onion into cubes and stew in olive oil. Chop sweet pepper into strips. Add it to the onion and simmer for 2 minutes. Pour in the broth, put the peppercorns, bay leaf and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Pour in the wine and boil. Add fish and cook for 3 minutes. Put the mussel and crab meat, reheat and season. Divide soup among bowls, garnish with shellfish and thyme.

The sea feeds man for more than one millennium. It is a storehouse of food stocks, which is famous for its nutritional value - rare trace elements, vitamins, amino acids, high-quality protein. In addition to fish, octopuses, crabs, squids, scallops and a lot of healthy seafood that are suitable for food, including mussels, live in the seas and oceans. Which have tender soft meat with a sweetish aftertaste. When it is boiled, it gives off a pleasant aroma. Pilaf, soups, salads, stews are prepared from mussel meat. It is salted, marinated, smoked, baked, fried. Mussels are served with pasta, cereals, potatoes, vegetables. It should be remembered that it is advisable to use cooked clams immediately, do not store them for more than twelve hours, otherwise poisoning is possible.

Mussels - food preparation

Before eating, shellfish require some preparation. If you do not want to chew sand during meals, frozen mussels, after defrosting, must be washed very thoroughly.

If you are going to cook mussels in shells, a longer preparation will be required. First of all, it is necessary to visually inspect them and remove mollusks with damaged shells; they are not eaten. To open the doors, the mussels must be placed in a hot pan or dipped in boiling water for two minutes. Then the meat is removed from the shell, the outgrowth is pulled out (a bunch of algae with which the mollusks are attached to the stones), and thoroughly washed from sand and pebbles.

Mussels - the best recipes

Recipe 1: Pickled Mussels

One of the most delicious dishes that can be prepared from mussels is simply pickling them. They turn out very tasty and cheaper than store-bought ones. You can add them to a salad, and put them on a piece of toast, and just eat like that. We offer two cooking options. In the first case, a marinade without the addition of vinegar is indicated - with spices, white wine and lemon, in the second - with vinegar. And so delicious.

Ingredients (1 option). 0.5 kg of mussels, vegetable oil 2-3 table. lies. lemon (juice), 150 ml dry wine (white), 1 clove of garlic, 1 tsp. lies. honey and ready-made mustard, salt, pepper, 1 parsley, a few sprigs of fresh dill and cilantro.

If using frozen mussels, defrost.
Prepare a sauce with spices in which mussels will be boiled. To do this, boil the wine, put garlic in it (no need to chop), bay leaf, pepper, lower the mussels and boil for about four minutes (time to detect from the moment of boiling). Throw away in a colander.
Make a marinade. Finely chop the greens, add lemon juice, oil, pepper, mustard, salt. You can take any mustard, for example, French or spicy.

Transfer the still warm mussels, along with a lavrushka leaf and a clove of garlic, into the marinade and let it brew in the refrigerator for five hours. It is more convenient to marinate in a glass jar or a deep bowl. By the way, you can pickle shrimp in the same way.

Ingredients (Option 2). 0.5 kg of mussels, incomplete glass of water, 1 table. lodges of table vinegar (9%), 1.5-2 table. lies. sugar, salt to taste.

Defrost shellfish. Salt the water, boil and boil the mussels in it for three to four minutes.
Make a marinade. It should taste sweet and sour. In boiled water, dissolve salt, sugar, pour in vinegar. Place the mussels in the hot marinade. In an hour they will be ready to use. You can put them in jars, where to add a little vegetable oil.

Recipe 2: Baked Mussels

Baked mussels are not only tasty, but also look beautiful, especially if they are baked and served directly in the shells. This dish is suitable for a festive table and for a romantic evening. We offer two cooking options: in the first option, seafood is baked in shells under a cheese crust, in the second, in the usual form with sauce.

Ingredients (1 option). 0.5 kg of mussels in shells, 2 tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, 50 g of butter, spices, 150 g of hard cheese.

Rinse the mussels well, clean the wings and boil for ten to fifteen minutes. You can add bay leaf, spices if desired, salt to the water. During cooking, all doors should open. Those that remain closed should not be eaten. Divide the cooled clams into halves and carefully separate the meat, which should be put back into the shells.

Grind the garlic with tomatoes not in a grater or blender. Put a piece of butter, a spoonful of tomato mixture into each half of the meat, rub the cheese on top and bake for 20 minutes (180C).

Ingredients (Option 2). 0.5 kg mussels, peppercorns, hard cheese 100g. Sauce: soft processed cheese 100-150g, 200ml cream, 25g butter, 1 egg yolk, 1 table. spoons of flour, 3 cloves of garlic.

Defrost mussels, boil for three minutes in salted water, adding peppercorns (5-6 pcs.).

Prepare the sauce. Chop the garlic and add the rest of the ingredients for the sauce. Mix better with a whisk or a blender so that there are no lumps.

Put the mussels in a pan or dish, pour over the sauce. Sprinkle with chopped cheese and bake for 20-25 minutes (200C).

Recipe 3: Fried Mussels

Fried mussels is a dish that is easy to prepare, but delicious in taste. For frying, both vegetable oil and melted butter will go. Nutritionists recommend creamy, which contains at least 25% vegetable fats. But it must be melted first. Otherwise, harmful carcinogens may form in the pan when burned.

Ingredients. 0.5 kg of mussels, vegetable oil, 2 onions, salt, hot ground pepper, seasoning for seafood (or Provence herbs).

Chop the onion into cubes, fry until golden. Add mussels and fry with constant stirring for five to seven minutes over medium heat. Salt, sprinkle with pepper, seasoning and remove from heat. Let it brew a little under the lid. Can be served with rice, potatoes or as a standalone dish.

- Shellfish caught between June and February should be eaten. in the spring they are not so tasty and greasy.

- Mussels should not be cooked for a long time, otherwise they will be dry and tasteless. The rule of cooking squid for no more than three to five minutes applies to them.

- Fresh mussels should not have an unpleasant odor and be with tightly closed doors that cannot be opened by hand.

Everyone can find mussels to their taste: in shells or peeled, fresh or frozen. Whichever option you choose, in this article we will talk in detail about how to cook mussels at home.

How to cook peeled frozen mussels deliciously?

Many of those who complain about the quality of peeled mussels either do not know how to choose them or cook them correctly. Delicious mussels should not be covered with ice, it is better to buy hermetically packed clams and cook according to the recipe below. The perfect snack for a glass of foam is guaranteed.

Ingredients:

• mussels - 640 g;
• flour - 75 g;
• light beer - 45 ml;
• vegetable oil for frying.

Cooking

Dry the peeled and thawed clams well. Make a simple batter by mixing flour with a pinch of salt, then whisking it with ice-cold pale beer (the colder the beer, the crunchier the batter will end up being). Mix the mussels with the resulting batter, and then taking them out in portions and letting the excess drain, deep-fry until browned. Dry the clams on paper towels before serving.

How to cook fresh mussels at home?

Fresh mussels are good on their own, but if you are tired of the pure taste of the product, then flavor the clams with aromatic herbs, garlic and a little beer.

Ingredients:

• bacon - 35 g;
• shallot - 45 g;
• garlic - 2 cloves;
• sprigs of rosemary, thyme - 2 pcs.;
• cream - 45 ml;
• butter - 15 g;
• mussels - 1.1 kg;
• light beer - 115 ml.

Cooking

Prepare the mussels by thoroughly scrubbing the beards, rinsing and cleaning the shells.

Place the bacon in the hot skillet and wait for the fat to melt. Remove the browned bacon pieces from the heat, and sauté the chopped onion and garlic in the hot fat. Put fresh herbs, pour in mussels and fill everything with beer. Wait for the shells to open, and at the very end, flavor everything with a piece of butter and a little cream. Serve the mussels with the rest of the sauce in the pan, after removing the sprigs of rosemary and thyme.

How to cook river mussels at home?

Ingredients:

• mussels - 1.8 kg;
• garlic - 4 cloves;
• canned tomatoes - 620 g;
• dry white wine - 95 ml;
• a handful of parsley for serving.

Cooking

Clean the clams as thoroughly as possible and rinse them well. After heating the olive oil, put the garlic cloves in it, and after half a minute pour in the white wine. When the liquid has evaporated by half, add the tomatoes and wait for the sauce to boil. Place the mussels in the hot sauce, cover and leave until the shells open.

How to cook mussels frozen in shells?

The classic dish with mussels in the composition is Spanish paella, which can more than pay off all your efforts with amazing taste. In this dish, you can safely combine any seafood available in your area.

Ingredients:

Cooking

Blanch vegetables. Fry chicken and sausages until browned. Put vegetables to the fried foods, add rice, add garlic and paprika and pour over everything with a mixture of wine and broth with tomato sauce. When the rice has absorbed half of the liquid, add the seafood. Cover everything with a lid and boil until the rice is fully cooked and the mussel shells open.

Almost any resident of the seaside knows how to cook mussels - and the resulting dish is very different from gourmet restaurants. Clams freshly caught from the sea with their own hands, cooked in an improvised pan in the form of an iron sheet, are a real delicacy. An open mussel is considered ready. As a rule, it is not seasoned with anything, because few people carry spices with them to the beach, but mussels prepared in this way are an excellent snack for dry white wine or cold beer.

Some have tried raw mussels. The pleasure is dubious, since they can be said to be the lungs of the sea: in an hour they pass up to three and a half liters of water through themselves, filtering all the dirt, therefore, eating raw mussels, you actually eat what she filtered. If you want to try mussels, how to cook is obvious: they require heat treatment.

How to cook mussels has been known since ancient times. On the seashore, during excavations of ancient settlements, they often find whole layers formed by shell valves. Now mussels are actively eaten in America and in the Mediterranean countries, they are becoming popular in Europe. This is not at all surprising: the meat is nutritious and tasty, full of various trace elements that make them literally healing. You can cook mussels in various ways, and using any of them will make a tasty and healthy dish.

Cooking mussels

Peeled and unpeeled mussels are sold, how to cook is up to you. Peeled mussels must be thoroughly rinsed before cooking so that there is no sand left in them, otherwise it will squeak on the teeth and spoil the pleasure. after - it is up to you: you can fry or boil them, make a gravy, add to a salad, serve as an independent dish. It is important to remember that they do not require a large amount of spices and spices - on the contrary, if there are a lot of them, you will not feel the taste of meat.

Unpeeled mussels should be well examined before cooking: shellfish, the shells of which are at least a little open, cannot be eaten - they must all be tightly closed. After you have selected whole shells, carefully clean them of algae and rinse well several times so that there is no sand left. also up to you. They can be boiled in water, you can use broth or wine instead of water. They are boiled for only a few minutes until the shells open - this will mean that the mussels are ready. You can eat them right away or prepare a more complex dish. If any shells do not open, they must be thrown away - they are not suitable for food.

Mussels with beans in tomato sauce

Rice or vegetables can serve as a side dish for shellfish. A very tasty dish - mussels with To prepare it, you will need 200-250 grams of boiled mussels, a glass of beans, a couple of onions, 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable (can be olive) oil, the same amount of tomato paste, a little garlic, salt, sugar. It is very easy to prepare. Boil the clams and beans, the meat can be chopped, or you can leave it as it is. Chop the onion, fry it in oil, add tomato paste, sugar, salt, garlic, you can also use the broth left over from the mussels. Simmer a little, then add the meat and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Pour the beans with the resulting sauce. Some stew beans with mussels - it turns out no less tasty. This dish is best served chilled with rice.

Now you have an idea of ​​​​how to cook mussels, but there are a lot of cooking methods. It is worth trying at least a few to understand if you like this product, and in what form.