When I was visiting Texel, an island of the Netherlands, I loved these mussels! Normally, and more traditionally, mussels are cooked in white wine. However on Texel they prefer to cook the mussels in one of their famous local beers: “Skuumkoppe”. The name refers to the white frothy water at the top of a wave in the sea. This beer is a dark wheat beer with a fruity aftertaste and has some hints of caramel.
And I need to admit, these mussels were delicious!
Mussels from Texel
Equipment
- Cooking Pot
- Bowl
- Sieve
Ingredients
- 3 Carrots
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 Onion
- Bunch of Spring Onions of 1 Leek
- 1 Bay Leaf
- Some Thyme
- 3 tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 kilo Mussels
- 1 bottle Skuumkoppe 330 ml (about 1 ½ cup)
Instructions
Preparations
- Make sure to remove the mussels of which the shell is damaged or broken. Add the mussels to a bowl with cold salted water. By keeping the mussels in here for 5 minutes, they will release any sand.
- Cut the garlic and carrot in slices, the onion in rings and the spring onions in 1cm pieces.
Cooking
- Pour some olive oil in the cooking pot and turn the heat on.
- Add the garlic, onion, carrots, spring onions, thyme and bayleaf. Cook these until the onions are glossy.
- Then quickly rinse and drain the mussels, whereafter you can add them to the cooking pot.
- Open the bottle of beer and pour that into the cooking pot as well. Add the lid and let the mussels cook on a high heat for about 5 minutes. The mussels that didn't open, need to be thrown away. If you like, you can finish the mussels with freshly chopped parsley!
Serve with..
- Serve the mussels with some bread, fries and a side salad!