Curried Mussels with Spiced Bacon

Yeah, so bacon is pretty much my favorite thing to add to other things, and I was feeling like curried mussels a few nights ago. Here are the results, which turned out very well:

2 lbs of mussels (normally that's what the bags weigh)
1/2 can of coconut milk (more if you want more broth -- I had some broth left over though, so 1/2 can should be plenty)
2 stalks of lemongrass
1/2 white onion
1 shallot, diced thin
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp minced ginger (more to taste)
white wine
6 slices of bacon
Curry Powder
Coriander

To make the broth, just saute the onion, garlic, shallots, lemongrass (remove the outer layers and chop big pieces of the pale yellow/white bulb area), and ginger in a wok or a deep saute/fry pan -- just get them to the point where they're fragrant, 2-3 minutes. Add the spices, cook for another minute, then add the coconut milk. Stir everything together, cook for another minute or so, and then taste to see what the spices are like -- I ended up adding about 1 tbs of curry powder...

Note on curry powder vs. paste: I used curry powder (yellow), but if you wanted to use paste, you could certainly do that as well -- I wanted to have a lighter curry taste since mussels are delicate, so that's why I opted for the powder. If you're using paste, add it before adding the coconut milk, and then cook the combined mixture a bit longer until you see the oil separating and coming to the top of the broth.

"De-bearding" mussels: Mussels are mostly farmed these days, which is great because they are very sustainable and there is little to no difference in taste between quality farm-raised mussels and wild ones. The farmers hang ropes seeded with mussels into the water, and then the mussels attach themselves via a strand of calcium coming from their shells -- this is the "beard", and you do not want to eat it.

This picture is not mine (got it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/86571141@N00/81767631/), but it shows the beard and the method of removing it:

Anyway, as shown, you want to pull the beard towards the hinge end of the mussel, as this will prevent an untimely death by yanking the mussel from its shell. I always use a dry towel, as it gives a much better grip than your fingers, and some of the beards can be quite tough to remove. It took me about 15 minutes to de-beard 2 lbs. of mussels, though most of them were relatively clean... so plan ahead a bit on dinner time.

Also (important!), never eat any mussels that are open, have cracked/broken shells, or smell noticeably bad -- sometimes they are a little bit open at the ends, but if you tap on the shells or force them closed, they should hold tight... this indicates that the mussel is still alive and not a festering bacteria haven waiting to kill you.

Okay, now that's out of the way -- back to the recipe:

For the bacon, I cooked it on a sheet pan in a 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes. Just check on it -- when the tiny white bubbles are out in abundance, remove the bacon and dab it with a paper towel to remove most of the grease. I seasoned my bacon with curry powder and coriander before baking it, and it tasted wonderful... plus, the neon yellow bacon grease was kinda cool.

When the curry broth is combined and seasoned as you would like, add the mussels to the pan, then move them around in the pan with a spoon, making sure to coat them with the broth as much as possible. After they cook for a minute or so and the broth comes back up to temperature (might want to raise the heat a bit), add the wine (I used two big "glugs" of white wine), and cover the pan to help the mussels steam.

Mussels are done when they open completely -- you can check on them without disrupting the cooking process too much, but generally they will be done in 5-6 minutes of cook time. Any that aren't open all the way, cook a bit longer -- if they still do not open, then do not eat them.

Here's what it looked like by the end (I added the bacon towards the end to keep it fairly crisp):


Serve with some crusty bread (or rice, if you're so inclined.. it is curry after all) and some nice white wine/prosecco/rice wine. In all, (not including de-bearding time), it took 20 minutes to make this meal and the total cost was about $10 -- the mussels were $7.98 for the bag at my fish market, and everything else was just veggies... very nice meal for that amount of cash if I do say so myself.

Viva la mussel!