Asian Mussels

Mussels: my favorite shellfish. In the interest of mixing things up a bit, I took a shot at kicking things up a couple notches last Friday evening with some Asian flavor. I sautéed up some garlic, shallots, scallions, shitake shrooms, and red pepper strips. Then I added a mix of soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, wasabi paste, sriracha hot sauce, a touch of honey, and a bunch of red pepper flakes. I'm not too sure of the amounts - this was all experimental. I had some thai rice noodles lying around - the pad thai sort - and soaked them in warm water while I cooked up the mussels in a wok with this hot, spicy sauce. Cooked the mussels, set them aside, them tossed the noodles in the sauce. I served it sprinkled with some toasted sesame seeds.

Yum.

Very tasty - quite spicy - and quite the departure from my now standard butter/garlic/white wine style. I haven't gotten the sauce quite right - it was a little too sour, a little too spicy I think, but the flavor was great on the whole. The red peppers and shitake shrooms did wonders.

Mussels are so versatile. Watch this space for more...mussels marinara...curried mussels...basil & cream mussels...mussels à la mode...the possibilities are endless.