Mussels with chorizo, tomato and sherry vinegar
Mussels. So simple to cook, so delicious to eat and so darned good for you. An excellent source of lean protein, iron, selenium, iodine and omega-3 fatty acids, we should all be eating them more. There’s so much healthy stuff lurking in those shells… until, of course, you pair mussels with chorizo like we have here but what the hey. What’s a few nitrates between bivalves? We love that mussels are one of the more effortless sea critters to cook; a quick scrub, a bit of a yank to get rid of the pesky beard thingos, then a quick steam in a bit of liquid and bam. Done.
And you know that thing you’ve always been told about discarding mussels that don’t open? Turns out it’s bollocks. The ones you should chuck out are any with smashed shells, as they’ve probably karked it. The stuff about discarding any that refuse to open after they’re cooked came from English food writer Jane Grigson in her 1973 book called Fish Book. The precise quote is “Throw away any mussels that refuse to open.” Which had never been proclaimed before but it stuck and gained traction. By the 1990s, virtually every cookbook author and food writer, none of whom were marine biologists, were parroting the same line and we all came to accept it as gospel truth.
Then, an Aussie called Nick Ruello was commissioned to write a report on everyone’s fave shellfish. He did lots of testing and, without going into boring details about elastic ligaments and adductor muscles, he found that 11.5% of mussels remained resolutely shut after the normal cook time but, when he forced them open, found them perfectly cooked and safe to eat. Per the ABC, Ruello asked two prominent Australian cookbook writers at the time why they said to throw unopened mussels out and “their replies were that the information came from their young research assistants who did much of the work in preparing (their) latest book.” Crikey!
Any mussels that are off, he said, will smell bad w-a-y before you cook them so running your snout over your green (uncooked) mussels is the best way to nip botulism in the bud. Now you know. Just prise those suckers open and stop. throwing. them. out.
SERVES 4 (or 2 if you’re hungry)
2 cured chorizo
80ml (1⅓ cup) extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
1½ tsp smoked paprika
1.5kg live mussels, shells scrubbed and bearded
125ml (½ cup) dry sherry or chicken stock
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
small handful oregano leaves, coarsely chopped
small handful flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
crusty bread, to serve
Remove the chorizo from their casings, then coarsely crumble.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add the chorizo, then cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until some of the fat has rendered out. Add the garlic and onion, then cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until the onion has softened. Add the smoked paprika and stir for another minute or until fragrant, then add the mussels and the sherry. Cover with a lid, increase the heat to high, then cook, shaking the pan often, for 3-4 minutes or until the mussels have opened; remove them as they open as some will take longer than others.
Remove the mussels to serving bowls, then boil the liquid over high heat for about 4 minutes to reduce it a little. Add the cherry tomatoes, cook another minute to warm them through, then add the herbs and swirl to combine. Pour the mixture over the mussels in the bowls, then serve with crusty bread.
