Deceptive, but healthy: mussels in coconut milk

Ragazzi, Annalena has been away for too long.  She hopes you missed her.  Ah, it is bittersweet coming back to a revamped blooger.com, with a  format that defies understanding, to Annalena's non-computer literate mind.  All say that these computer systems are "intuitive."  Annalena has good intuition, so she dissents from that view.

The press of many things, many of them emotionally taxing, has taken Annalena from you for these past two weeks.  BUT... she kept on cooking while she was away, and is going to share the results of that cooking with you.  Starting with a dish that is right up the alley of Ms. Emily, the personal trainer.  It is fast, it is low in calories, it is filling, and ultimately, it is good for you.

One of the items that people seem to ignore, when buying fish, is mussels.  Annalena wonders why.  Do they seem like they are too much work?  Really, they are not.  Perhaps it is the legacy of old recipes, with involved instructions on how to clean mussels.  Indeed, that was a necessity, when all mussels were harvested from the wild.  You would see elaborate instructions for "debearding" mussels, since they grow, attached to long strings of whoknowswhat, and then these inedible pieces of detritus would in fact hang from the beautiful blue shells.  These days, however, most mussels are farmed.  If you happen to find wild ones, which are somewhat tastier, and richer,  then you will have to scrub and pull, but it is not a difficult task.  Just put the critters into a bowl of warm water, and pull em out, one at a time, and pull the nonsense off of them.  It takes less time than you would think.

A digression for a minute on the buying of mussels.  DO NOT buy them in a supermarket, where you will find them wrapped in those hideous plastic portions which do not really seem to have any worth whatsoever.  Mussels, like clams, oysters, and all other shellfish, are live, and must be cooked live.  They have to breathe.  And that plastic, essentially, suffocates them.  So go to a good fishmonger, take a look at what s/he is selling, and if the mussels are clean,  and unbroken, buy from him or her.  AND NO ONE ELSE.

Mussels are inexpensive.  Annalena bought two pounds of them for 5.00, and that is about enough for two large lunch or dinner portions.  They DO take up a large volume of space, which may make cooking a bit problematic, but as the Italians say "farcela"  (deal with it).  You can.  You have dealt with worse from these recipes.

Calorically, as far as Annalena can tell, mussels are on the low side.  It has proven to be notoriously difficult to get figures for a "pound" of mussels, but the figures Annalena has found, range from 86 to 190 calories for a pound of them.  Even at the high end, this is not bad.  And when we add the other ingredients, we will not be pushing this much higher.

Finally, mussels cook quickly.  You can easily have this dish on the table in 20 minutes.  Annalena  adopted this recipe from the NY Times, and she will explain to you howshe changed it, because you can change it, too, and if you do, she wants to know.

Let's measure out our non-mussel ingredients.  You will need a tablespoon of neutral oil  (the recipe called for two, but given what we're doing here, which is essentially steaming, one is plenty).  Chop either a shallot, or some green onions, or spring onions, until you have a quarter  cup.  Also chop of 2-3 cloves of garlic.  Get yourself a stalk of lemon grass, and cut away the long green part.  You can use it for soup or broth if you like.  Annalena mulches it.  Crush the white part with the back of your knife, and then cut the crushed piece.   If you like the dish spicy, chop up a hot pepper of your choice.  Annalena did not have hot peppers around, but used half a teaspoon of that Thai chili sauce sricha (which she has probably misspelled).    You also need a cup of low fat coconut milk (is there any need, any more, for full fat coconut milk?).  This is going to add about 150 calories to your pot, and the oil, 100.  So, at most, you have 450 calories or so going on.    Now, peel strips off of a lemon (the recipe called for half a lemon), and squeeze the juice and keep it separately.  You will also want a big teaspoon of Asian fish sauce (notice that there isn't any salt in this recipe other than this), and finally,  if you like them, a nice bunch of cilantro leaves chopped up.  The Guyman does not like cilantro, so Annalena used parsley.  It is fine.  If you have lovage, please use it.

OK, ragazzi, let's muscle up.  Put the oil in a big pan and when it heats, add your onion, garlic, lemon grass, and either the chili or chili sauce if you're using it.  Lower your heat to medium, and when the onion goes translucent on you, add the coconut milk, and the mussels.  Cover your pot.  After five minutes, check.  The mussels will be opening, and you should get them out as you do.  It is very possible that they will all be opened at this point.  The fresher the mussels, the easier they will open.  

When you have all the mussels out, then stir in the lemon juice, the fish sauce, the peel, and stir it all together.    Taste your sauce, and adjust it to your liking, because you're going to pour this over the mussels.

The original recipe called for putting this dish over a grilled, sliced croissant.  Annalena did not care for that idea, but has become enchanted with a Moroccan bread called m'smen, which she has absolutely no intention of learning how to bake.  So she toasted 1.5 of each of these, and served them with the dish.  Undoubtedly, that pushed the calories up, but since  the total is a grand 450 or so, for two people,  she was not too concerned.  If you are, then don't use bread.  If bread doesn't sing to you, how about some rice, be it brown or white?  Or glass noodles? 

Ragazzi, it is time to "muscle up" as we say.   After all, the trainers out there ARE going to like this dish.

Still to come, readers, are a recipe for a spicy huckleberry ice cream, as well as one for a fish where there is mixed reaction:  skate.  Be with me,  and alla prossima.