When going out into the countryside, many people grill kebabs of pork or lamb or other types of meat. However, this snack also has its opponents. Some people don’t agree to wait as long as it takes for the meat to marinate and cook. Others find meat snacks too high in calories and hard on the stomach. An alternative is charcoal-fried seafood. Most often shrimp and squid are prepared this way, but shellfish are also suitable for this purpose. Grilled mussels cook quickly, turning into a delicious appetizer that even a picky gourmet will not refuse.
Mussel kebab
Compound:
- 500 g frozen mussels,
- marinade,
- sticks.
For the marinade:
- Option 1 - ground black pepper, salt, juice of half a lemon, or vinegar.
- Option 2 - soy sauce, wasabi sauce, seasoning mixture of peppers.
- Option 3 - mayonnaise, soy sauce, garlic, pepper, lemon juice.
You can use another marinade, whichever you like best.
Preparation
- Thaw the mussels, rinse and place in a bowl or other container.
- Pour the marinade over the mussels and mix gently, let them sit for 10-15 minutes and string them onto sticks.
- If you use soy sauce, there is no need to add salt as there is enough salt in the sauce.
- Then cook the kebab over coals or in the oven for 5-10 minutes, turning it several times so that it is fried on different sides.
- Bon appetit!
Seafood with onions
Preparing a seafood delicacy according to this recipe will not take more than 20-30 minutes, and the calorie content of the dish is only 160-170 kcal per 100 g of product, which will allow it to be consumed even by those who are watching their figure.
For 4-5 servings you will need the following ingredients:
- 500-600 g mussels;
- 2-3 medium sized onions;
- butter or olive oil;
- pepper, salt, spices to taste;
- half a lime.
If you are confused by the fishy smell that shellfish have, you should sprinkle them with lemon juice before cooking, which will make it almost invisible. Place the thawed, sand-free shells on a wire rack and fry for 10-15 minutes, stirring regularly. When the shells have opened, remove them from the grill.
Cut the onion into half rings and fry in a frying pan, adding spices and salt. Once it becomes golden and transparent, remove from heat. Carefully place the onion in the open shells, pour over lime juice and serve.
COOKING MUSSELS ON THE GRILL
Yesterday I told how 20 kilograms of mussels came to us, and today I’ll show you what we did with them (of course, we ate them, but before that we also cooked them).
And don’t let my dirty hands scare you - you can’t eat mussels freshly taken from the seabed without being guilty. You pour lemon over it - mmmmm. This is happiness! So, we have freshly caught mussels, barbecue, lemon and a bunch of hungry car enthusiasts.
In general, that evening was one of the best in my life. We drove many kilometers of Crimean roads, climbed Meganom, dived into pits, rode in the back of a pickup truck, climbed Mount Klimentyev, and ended with a pier with a boat and Gena, who waved at 20 kilograms of mussels collected with his own hands and said:
How I went to the store!
Although no, the pier was not the end of the evening. An amazing dinner awaited us, which lasted almost until dawn amid chatter and laughter. The guys lit a grill, put a metal sheet on it and, when it was hot, laid out batches of mussels.
As soon as they open, they are ready, you can transfer them to a dish and serve.
Dinner is served
Fluffy cakes “Mussels”
Category: Baking Dough products Puff pastries
These cakes are from my childhood... in 1989 we flew to visit relatives in Tashkent... then there was still the Soviet Union..... besides the impressions of huge watermelons and oval melons, palm trees, sweet peaches, Uzbek girls with a thousand braids, My mother and I brought the recipe for these cakes.. The empty shelves were not spoiled with variety, but the skill of my mother’s hands always pleased with new delicacies... and these cakes too))) Of course, in those days there was no ready-made puff pastry, my mother made it herself... for a long time .., and the mountain of cakes literally melted before our eyes... I offer a simpler recipe that does not lose at all in taste.....
Mussels on the fire
Ingredients:
- frozen mussels,
- butter,
- garlic,
- salt,
- ground hot pepper,
- black pepper,
- lemon juice,
- greens (fresh or dry).
Cooking Mussels over a fire.
- Defrost the mussels. Meanwhile, melt the plums in the microwave. oil (I use about 2 tablespoons of oil per kg of mussels), squeeze out 1-2 cloves of garlic.
- Pour over the mussels, add salt, pepper, herbs, lemon juice to taste and leave to marinate. Usually we do everything just before leaving, they marinate along the way, in the end from 1 to 2 hours. When the grill is ready, string the mussels onto wooden skewers and fry them over the fire for about 3-4 minutes.
Have a nice one)))
Grilled mussels
This is perhaps one of the most primitive recipes that you could come up with.
To cook mussels this way:
- A metal grate is placed on a burning fire.
- Place the mussels on the grill in a single layer.
- During frying, the mussels open up - and all the moisture from them, boiling, evaporates.
- When all the moisture has boiled away, the mussels can be removed from the grill, discarding those that have not opened.
- The contents are removed from the finished mussels and the solid part is torn off, which usually contains scraps of seaweed, sand and other debris.
- The meat obtained in this way can be immediately eaten, or you can make another dish from it, for example, mussel soup, which we’ll talk about a little later.
- If you don't have a grate at hand, you can just as easily use a metal sheet.
- In the most extreme cases, you can fry mussels on stones heated in a fire or directly on coals, but in this case difficulties will arise due to the fact that you will have to put the mussels directly into the burning fire and remove them from there, which is not very convenient.
- In addition, the mussel meat in this case may be stained with soot or sand on which the fire is made. If soot or sand does get on the mussel meat, you can wash it off with water.
Oysters
Some types of oysters are served as a delicacy in restaurants not only in heat-treated form, but also live. However, it should be understood that such oysters are grown in special conditions and their cleanliness and safety are closely monitored.
Oysters caught in the wild must be thermally treated to avoid health problems, especially in survival conditions, when no one can come to the aid of the victim, and if they come, they most likely will not be able to do anything due to the lack of necessary medicines. .
Cooking oysters over a fire is no different from cooking mussels over a fire: the high temperature allows you to open the doors and heat the meat.
How to fry mussels over a fire without shells
Mussels (frozen) – 500 grams Lemon (you can use 50 milliliters of vinegar or soy sauce instead of lemon) – half Salt – half a teaspoon Pepper – to taste
How to make mussels on a fire without shells
Products:
- mussels 1 kg
- Cherry tomatoes
- Sweet bell pepper
- juice of one lemon
- Garlic – 1 tooth
- salt – 1 tsp
- herbes de Provence or pizza spice mix
- pepper mixture – 0.5 tsp
- Olive oil – 0.5 tbsp
Preparation:
- If the mussels are frozen, defrost them in the refrigerator.
- Wash the defrosted mussels and remove algae with your hands, if any.
- Place the mussels in a bowl, add salt and pepper, squeeze out the juice of half a lemon or pour in vinegar or soy sauce, mix and set aside for 15 minutes.
- Thread the marinated mussels onto skewers.
- Keep mussels on skewers over the coals for 5-10 minutes, turning several times.
Grilled or grilled mussels
Before frying, all mussels must be sorted and cleaned. Do not use ones that are too light or heavily clogged with sand. Remove the tendon located at the side.
It is advisable to place the mussels in a bath with a solution of vinegar, plenty of salt and water for half an hour. Moreover, the ratio of water and vinegar should be 3 to 1. We take regular table vinegar. You can put 2-3 tablespoons of salt per liter of water. Thus, the solution must be salted and acidified.
Why do this?
With the help of such a “bath” you will remove the unpleasant smell of mud (especially for river and lake mussels) and destroy most of the harmful microorganisms.
Place the cooked mussels on a grill or iron sheet and place it on the grill. The coals in the grill should be “hot”, so make a fire in advance so that all the wood burns out or use ready-made coal. Fry the mussels for 3 to 6 minutes.
Stir the shells periodically so that they heat evenly and open faster. Mussels with opened shells are ready to eat.
Be sure to throw away any unopened shells. Their use is dangerous for your health!
Open the shell completely and take out the cooked meat (you can pour lemon juice over it right in the shell) of the clam and eat with pleasure!
Rapana
The full name of this mollusk is veined rapana, that is, “rapana” is feminine, despite the fact that many believe otherwise and call this mollusk in the masculine gender “rapan”.
Rapana is a marine mollusk that entered the Black Sea relatively recently and is gradually leading to an environmental disaster due to the destruction of the marine natural filter - mussels. The video below shows how rapana eat a mussel:
On a note
The law limits the catch of Black Sea rapana to ten pieces per day per person, despite the fact that ecologists and biologists have long been fighting for the abolition of such restrictions, because this is a serious pest that has almost no enemies in the Black Sea.
To prepare rapana you need:
- Kill by placing in boiling water for one minute.
- Remove from water and let cool.
- If possible, drain the water and put new water to boil.
- Tear off the shell from the shell.
- Insert a knife, fork or sharpened stick into the clam and, pressing on the handle, use the lever to remove the clam from the shell.
- Remove the dark part of the clam that was deep in the shell.
- Place the rest in boiling water and cook for five minutes.
Ready rapana meat can be consumed in this form, or it can be cut and added to salads.
I would not recommend frying rapana: its meat becomes very tough.
FEATURES AND SECRETS OF COOKING
When choosing frozen shellfish in the supermarket, make sure that there is no snow on them, as this indicates low quality.
If you purchase peeled mussels, they should be light and firm in appearance. Large shellfish are considered the best. To ensure that cooking mussels brings only positive emotions, and the finished dish delights you with taste and aroma, you should adhere to some rules:
- If you are cooking fresh mussels, you can immediately send them to the fire. Frozen product must first be defrosted at room temperature.
- Seafood is particularly delicate, so it often sticks to the grill, making cooking difficult. To prevent this from happening, it is recommended to thoroughly clean the grill before and oil it.
- Place the shellfish on a well-heated grill and constantly monitor the degree of frying, as overcooked mussels lose their taste, become tough and rubbery.
- It is best to use white wine in recipes and grilled vegetables as a side dish.
- Salt the dish with caution. Since all seafood already contains a certain amount of salt, you run the risk of oversalting the finished product.
- The most suitable ingredients for sauce for seafood dishes are lemon juice, garlic, herbs and olive oil. Creamy sauce goes very well with shellfish.
You can cook grilled mussels according to the recipe at any time of the year. The dish turns out juicy, tasty, and can become a decoration and highlight of any table. You can try any sauces yourself, creating original recipes and adding new flavor notes to the dish. Cooking seafood does not require any special skills, so everyone can prepare a delicious appetizer.
