ONE PAN POTATOES AND MUSSELS RECIPE
I’ve bought a Weber kettle barbecue last month and I’ve been messing around with it, learning the basics and then losing the run of myself and grilling notions. At the same time, Sustainable Seafood Ireland has started selling at the Airfield weekend market and it means I get to buy the best fish in Dublin a few hours from when it lands. This can only mean one thing and it’s fish and seafood bbqs. I bought a litre of Irish mussels as I wanted to throw some on the grill (and my oh my were they good) and had to come up with something for the rest of them. This one pan potatoes and mussel recipe was thus born.
It is good, it is healthy and we enjoyed every single bite. The chilli lifts it up and makes it that wee bit more exotic so, yeah, let’s just say it’s a holiday in a pan. Or something.
Tips: buy the freshest mussels you can get, it will make all the difference. I used chard from my garden but whatever greens you have will work, be it spinach, peas, beans, lettuce or even a big bunch of fresh herbs. For the chilli powder, I used Korean chilli flakes, which are warm but not hot. Nothing stopping you from using fresh chillis or hotter types if that’s what you’re after. A drizzle of lemon juice at the end wouldn’t go amiss.
Finally, mussels must be fully closed before you start cooking them, and opened when they come off the pan. Anything else must be discarded.
Ingredients
- 500 g of waxy spuds
- half a litre of fresh mussels
- handful of chard
- one large onion
- 5 garlic cloves
- chilli powder to taste
- green of two scallions for garnish
- sea salt flakes
- water
- bit of olive oil
Method
- Cube the potatoes and slice that big fat onion.
- Heat up a bit of oil in a large frying pan and add the spuds and onions to it. Sprinkle with the chilli and cook them down gently for 10 min or until they start to brown, then add half a glass of water, cover the pan and cook until all the water is gone.
- Check for doneness and repeat the above step until the potatoes are cooked. They will be semi fried and skimmed and delicious (think of pot stickers here).
- Add the greens and garlic and cook for 5 mins.
- Push the spuds to one side and add the mussels to the pan. Turn up the heat and cook them from 3 to 5 min or until they are all open.
- Salt to taste and garnish with the shredded scallion.