“Light soupy mussel stew, delicious and healthy”
Not many people like mussel, but this shellfish is very nutritious and low in calorie, in fact.
I liked my mussels to be stirred fried with strong chili and spices usually, but this time, I cooked it light in stew. More on a western style, but I considered it a fusion dish instead. I had it with chili Padi as well. Ha.
Anyway, this recipe yields light soupy dish. The overall flavor was subtle that you almost taste the natural flavor of the mussel flesh as though it’s steamed. So, you should eat the mussel together with its flavorful red wine soup sauce.
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
500g of mussels in shells
100ml of red cooking wine
1 tomato, diced
1/2 red capsicum, deseed and diced
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and diced
1-2 chili Padi, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoons of Italian herbs
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Dash of coarsely grounded black pepper
Pinch of salt and sugar
Method
(1) Scrub each mussel shell with brush. Discard cracked and excessively heavy (sand filled) mussels.
(2) Heat wok or large pan with olive oil over medium fire. Melt butter and swirl the pan to spread the butter. Add onion and capsicum, sauté till browned. Add garlic and chili Padi, stir fry till fragrant.
(3) Add in mussels. Stir a little. Drizzle half the amount of red cooking wine. Reduce heat to low. Cover pan with lid to simmer for 5 minutes, or until mussel shells are opened.
(4) Increase heat to high. Sprinkle salt and sugar, stir to combine. Then, sprinkle Italian herbs, stir again to combine. Lastly, drizzle the remaining half of the red wine. Heat off, dish up and sprinkle black pepper. Serve hot.
A serving of my stew mussels counts about 220kcal.
Tips: To make the dish more meaty flavor, you may add 50ml of chicken stock to simmer the mussels.
* Omit chili, if can’t take spicy.
