The mussels full of parsley butter with garlic and in the oven until sparkling and golden make an excellent start for a meal. They can be served with cocktails as a teaser palate (appetizers) or as a first course at the table. Taking care not to cook the mussels too much, you will assure you that every bite not only explodes with the flavor, but it is also tender. And this dish is fun to prepare. Make the mussels in the oven while your guests arrive and prepare for applause.
Gratin mussels in parsley / Musks with parsley and garlic
Here in France, the mussels are available in two main varieties – Bouchot musselswhich are small and are grown on the stakes planted in the sand, generally in the Atlantic e Spanish musselswhich are larger and raised in the Mediterranean. The best for this dish would be the largest mussels, but when there were no market last weekend, I used the smaller ones, which worked well.
French lovers and make them in many ways – to the sailor (cooked in white wine with shallot), in cream, with curry, in a saffron soup, like a spicy palate (without shells), in pasta, in paella and, as here, gratinMeaning with a baked crust.
While a gratin The crust is often made with cheese, it is not always the case. Here, the gratin It is made with breadcrumbs. The mussels are first open to the steam, then fill on the vehicle shell with softened butter combined with chopped garlic, parsley and breadcrumbs. The mussels are then cooked, but only briefly – five minutes at most – to guarantee tenderness.
Like so many French terms that have to do with food, the word “gratin‘It has an interesting story. In the past centuries, gratin It meant the tasty pieces that stick to the bottom of a pan, for example after roasted a chicken, and that you have to scratch (scratch) to have fun. Over time, the French chefs have brought these tasty pieces to the top of the plate. By extension, “Le Gratin” It also means the elite of the company – thinks of “higher crust”.
There are already many gratin dishes on this site: made with cauliflower, leeks, Swiss chard, Belgian edition and country ham, aubergines, pasta, potatoes, pumpkin and mixed vegetables. And let’s not forget ‘Gratiné’ – The French term for French onion soup. These dishes are often more appreciated in winter, when everyone needs comfort food.
Returning to this week’s recipe, the main problem in preparing a batch of butter -athynium mussels with a gratin The crust must be sure to do enough. I just asked my daughter, who happily hit 30 of them, as the dish would describe. His answer? ‘More-ish’.
Good cuisine.
