Never Whine Over Left Over Wine – March 29, 2013

We had a great party the other night and woke to find several open bottles of wine.  We finished the red wine that night, but decided to cook with the white.  John was craving mussels after reading about a newly opened mussels restaurant, so we decided to make our own.  We bought 1 ½ lbs. of mussels at the local seafood market and had the rest of the ingredients at home.  But, I also had a lovely bag of mushrooms from a local farmer and decided there had to be a way to take advantage.  Here was the resulting recipe:

Mussels and Mushrooms

1 1/2 lb mussels

1 T unsalted butter

3/4 cup white wine

1 chopped shallot

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 /2 c. fresh chopped parsley

Scrub and remove the beards from the mussels. This means tossing and mussels that do not close because they are dead!

Heat the butter over medium-high heat in a large, wide-bottomed pot with a lid.  Saute the shallot until it is soft. Add the garlic cloves and do the same.  Add the white wine and bring it to a boil.  Add the mussels in one layer if possible.

Cover the pot and let the mussels steam for 3-8 minutes.  After three minutes, check the mussels to make sure most are open and toss in the parsley.  Cook longer if necessary.  Again, throw out any mussels that did not open.  Serve the rest with crusty bread.

So then, I took about a ½ cup of the broth and put in a small pot and warmed back up to medium.  I added the mushrooms and cooked until all the flavor was through the mushrooms.  I had them with my mussels but added the left overs to a delicious salad the following day!  Yum!