What I Ate For Dinner

Mussels are one of the easiest and most delicious summer foods to prepare. The home chef, in particular, is well positioned to knock them out with quality on par with most of the professional big boys. They're cheap, widely available, and require little time, special equipment or knowledge to handle properly. Perhaps the biggest pitfall comes down the line before anything even goes in the pan, for housing mussels in the 'fridge at home requires almost as much attention (though still not too much) as actually cooking them.

Mussels are sold alive, which means you want to avoid suffocating them. A fresh mussel is a closed mussel. That plastic bag your seafood guy sent you home with is a veritable body bag, unless you intervene. First thing you want to do when you get home with the mollusks is remove them from the bag and place them in a bowl. Then nestle the bowl containing the mussels into a larger bowl that contains ice water. Then cover the bowls with a damp kitchen or paper towel and store in the 'fridge. These, I've heard, can remain in storage for up to 48 hours, but I would recommend that you purchase your mussels on the same day you plan to prepare them. Freshness is a key here.

Once you're ready to put 'em on the dance floor, give 'em the once over to make sure their tuxes are on straight. You might find shaggy hairs hanging out of some of them that look like frayed string (or a mullet). Yank these beards out. Also go through them to make sure none have opened. If you find some that have, give them a sharp rap and see if they close. If they do? Still good. If they don't? They're unusable. Then, give them a scrub to remove any debris, mud, gunk, etc.

Now for the preparation of today's entrée, Moules à la Basquaise, based on Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook recipe. Start by roasting bell peppers (red look great but any color will work) in a 500 degree oven until blistered on most surfaces and charred on some. This can take 20-30 minutes. Once they're out of the oven, you'll need to get the skins off. Bourdain has a good trick: let them cool a bit (but not completely), and then place them in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap for ten or so minutes. This, I found, makes removing the skins quite simple once they've cooled enough for you to do so. Chop the roasted and skinned peppers into strips, julienne style.

Now to the stove. In a large pot, sauté chopped shallots in olive oil until slightly colored and translucent. Add garlic and the sliced roasted bell peppers, season with salt and pepper, and sauté briefly--probably only about another minute or so. Now add enough white wine to thickly coat the bottom of the pot. This is the liquid in which the mussels will cook, and which will also be the savory broth in which they're served--so don't skimp on the booze.

On medium-high heat, bring the wine up to a simmer and dump in the mussels. A restaurant (read: generous) portion would be one pound of mussels per person, although I go with three-quarters of a pound per person. Cover and allow to simmer on medium high heat until the mussels open--about five to eight minutes. As you simmer the mussels, be sure to SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE the pot while covered every minute or so. Shaking the pot bastes the mussels. Once the mussels open, finish with some butter and chopped fresh herbs (sage, basil, parsley, you name it).

For service, dump out the mussels with some broth into a bowl. You'll want something to mop up the broth, so this dish is usually served with crusty bread. To add intrigue to the bread, just puree tomatoes in a blender with white wine and salt, then transfer to the stove and let some of the liquid boil off. The idea is that you wind up with a moist paste. Add herbs to finish, and slather the tomato paste onto a crusty baguette cut lengthwise.