Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nutritionist or professional chef. I do not provide nutritional breakdowns or carb counts with my recipes. Google is a great source for that if needed. Blessed be... and happy cooking!

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Spicy Greek Mussels Saganaki

 Credit for this recipe goes to Deppy, the owner of Greek Cooking Made Easy

When I first saw Deppy's recipe, I was instantly intrigued by the combination of mussels and Dijon mustard. I bought mussels next day and made the dish! (with some minor changes) Table comments were very favorable, but we found it was too strong to be a standalone meal, even with hummus, naan and my German Cucumber Salad. When I make it again I will serve it as a small plate along with several others like roasted veggies and maybe my Lemon Parmesan Barley


Ingredients:

  • 1 lb shelled Mussels, boiled, frozen (or fresh) & thawed (with their juices from the freezer)
  • 1 cup / 5- 6 oz Feta cheese - cubed
  • 2 cloves garlic - minced
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 glass / 5 oz white wine - pinot grigio preferred
  • 3 tbsp creamy Dijon mustard
  • 1 bunch fresh parsley - finely chopped
  • 4 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/8 tsp of crushed Aleppo pepper - optional
  • fresh ground black pepper to taste

Preparation:

Pour the olive oil in a large, deep frying pan over medium-high heat. When oil heats up, add the minced garlic and sauté it for 2 minutes. Stir constantly and lower heat to prevent garlic from burning.

Reduce heat to very low and deglaze with the wine. Next add the mustard and season with fresh ground pepper to taste. Whisk to dissolve mustard and blend all the ingredients and make the sauce.

Add the thawed mussels with any juice from defrosting. Gently scatter them around the pan. Let them simmer for 5minutes, gently shaking the pan a couple of times.

Add lemon juice, parsley and optional Aleppo pepper and stir/fold gently to combine everything.

Turn off the heat and now for the finishing touches, drop the feta cubes in the pan. Cover and shake the pan from its handles to blend all ingredients and to help feta gradually melt.

Blessed be... and happy cooking!