Some nights I am totally comfortable sacrificing complexity for speed. These spicy mussels can be one of those dishes that ranges from being a simple weekday compromise to a more refined dinner.
It’s also one of those dinners that is a reward for keeping a well maintained pantry. If you’ve already got curry paste and coconut cream, and some basic aromatic veggies in the fridge, you can pick up your bag of mussels on the way home.
Depending on how much extra flavour and texture you want to layer into the base stir fry, this can be a 10-minute knock-it-together dish or take 30 minutes.
Spicy mussels, lap cheong and coconut
Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 10 mins
Serves: 2
Flavour base
1 lap cheong sausage or bacon (or just skip this)
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 fennel bulb, sliced
1/2 small red capsicum, sliced
A few slices of ginger and turmeric, thinly sliced
2 coriander roots, washed and chopped
2-3 tablespoons curry paste (I used laksa paste)
1 tablespoon coconut oil or olive oil
The bulk
1kg mussels in the shell, remove any beards or loose seaweed
A splash of wine, or vermouth, or shaoxing cooking wine
1 head broccoli
Textural and pretty bits
Coriander leaves
Torn spring onion tops
Red chilli, finely sliced
100g coconut cream
Cut the broccoli head in 1/2 and then on an angle slice into 1/2cm thicknesses, put into the serving dish you intend to serve the mussels in. Boil the kettle, pour boiling water over the sliced broccoli. Allow it to gently cook as you prepare the rest.
Slice and chop up as many of the flavour base ingredients as you have. In a deep fry pan, fry the sausage, then the veggies in the coconut oil until they start to caramelise and soften. Add the curry paste and fry for another minute.
Drain the water from the broccoli and allow to cool (the sauce from the mussels will reheat this and cook it a little more as you serve it).
Add the mussels and a splash of wine to the fry pan and increase the heat.
Put the lid on the pan, give it a little jiggle to distribute the mussels. Cook for 5 minutes until the mussels start to open.
Stir the mussels and check that most of them are open, and using tongs put the open mussels into the large serving dish onto the cooked broccoli. Leave any unopened mussels in the pan and cook for another minute or two to open.
Pour the remaining mussels, the vegetables and the sauce into the serving dish.
Scatter over the coriander leaves, the spring onion and red chilli.
Drizzle with the coconut cream and serve immediately.
We love this as a light meal just with the broccoli but it can also be served with some boiled noodles, steamed rice or some crusty bread to dip.
Cooked but unopened, farmed mussels are safe to eat, it’s a wasteful old wives tale to discard them! Use a discarded mussel shell to prise open any unopened mussels.
For later in the week
Cook a double batch of mussels and to use the remaining mussels, lap cheong, veggies and sauce, toss through warm boiled potatoes to make a fragrant curry potato salad.
When preparing any veggies or herbs that aren’t finished, cut the rest and return to the shopping bag to get a head start on the next day.
Save the remaining coconut cream for a quick coconut chia pudding: 1 part chia seeds, 4 parts hot tap water, 4 parts coconut cream, stir well and allow the jelly to form, sweeten to taste with honey.
