White Wine Mussels

The key dish of our lunch was mussels. The first meal my boyfriend ever cooked for me were mussels and I loved them so much. We have been having mussels at restaurants and he decided to make some for me the next time I visited.

First thing, clean and clip off anything attached to the mussels. You would not want to eat that or have it contaminate your broth. The most essential thing is to soak the mussels in a flour water. This will cause the mussels to spit out sand that they have harbored. Let sit for about half an hour.

While you wait chop up garlic and shallots. We had 2.7 lbs of mussels. We chopped up 5-6 cloves of garlic and two shallots. Not minced just small pieces. It is just for flavoring not for eating. Wash and peel leaves off on cilantro stems. We had about 1/4 cup of cilantro leaves. Wash mussels of flour water.

In deep pan, cook the garlic and shallots in butter. Then add about a cup of white wine. Mussels secrete juices when they are being cooked. Add pepper and salt but beware that mussel juice is very flavorful add less salt. Add a bit of cilantro and then toss in the mussels. High heat! Stir mussels around. Mussels are done when they open their shells.

After you enjoy your mussels, you can save the mussel broth to make soup. Delicious!

Ingredients:
- Mussels (1 lb per person)
- White wine (1/2 cup per lb)
- Garlic (2-3 cloves per lb)
- Shallots (1 per lb)
- Butter
- Cilantro leaves
- Pepper and salt to taste