The fact that mussels can only be eaten in "R" months is a fairy tale from the time when mushroom dishes were not allowed to be warmed up. This is not a problem today - as long as they land in the kitchen after harvesting with the zero-degree cold chain closed and then quickly on the plate. Therefore, they are sold in air-permeable bags or nets (except cans or TK-goods), because with all kinds of mussels, dangerous toxins can quickly form after death. However, summer mussels often have bad-tasting meat due to spawning time, and summery algal blooms face toxic dinoflagellate residues in the mussel's water filters.
All in all, January is one of the best months to plaster a nice, big bowl of mussels. Because on the one hand, this food, with its almost freely selectable energy level, fits well into the social environment that is so close to winter bacon reduction - in addition to the lean mussels, the quantities of wine and white bread supplement determine the calorie intake. And secondly, especially the mollusks in the currently humid waters of northern Spain are sparkling clean and wonderful yellow fleshy.
The best mussels come from Galicia in northern Spain, but most are delivered from the Netherlands. Who thinks of shellfish first to France, lies next to it. With around 150,000 tonnes (including trays) per year, our neighbors are the largest producers in Europe - albeit oysters. The world market leader is China with over 2 million tons of oysters.
Mussels Asia style
In January, the mussels from northern Spain's Galicia are particularly non-toxic and yellow-fleshed: Wagner's recipe for "mussels Asia-style".
Shiitake mushrooms, shallots, garlic and ginger are finely diced for the pre-steamed broth.
The later deposit comes only very briefly at the end raw to the mussels: tomatoes, ginger, shallots, garlic, carrots and spring onions.
The broth is boiled with sake and perfumed with oyster sauce, ketjap manis and lemon grass as an asian.
Butter, oil, sesame and minced ginger, garlic and coriander are mixed for the bread sticks.
The bread sticks coated with the spice paste are put into the oven for a few minutes shortly before serving.
The French eat a good 90 percent of their oysters and mussels themselves, but appreciate the seafood for a different reason: Near La Rochelle, France's shellfish center on the Atlantic, the shells are now processed to abrasive in exfoliating creams or filaments for 3-D printers. Shrimp shells have been used in Asia for some time to produce the polymer chitosan, from which filters, films, wound dressings and diet pills can be made. The latter, however, to the horror of those who are allergic to the crustacean tropomyosin: These industrial by-products are not always subject to the allergen labeling.
From a health point of view, the consumption of mussels is not without dangers, even beyond incompatibilities. In addition to the high proportion of gout-promoting purines in shellfish, various pathogens are a real problem that lies in the nature of the shell itself: it filters between one and five liters of water every day in the hope that enough usable food particles get stuck in the gills , If these animals nest in the immediate vicinity of the mouth of dirty rivers or at the ends of sewer pipes, significant amounts of bacteria remain in the meat.
This would actually be easy to counteract, because most of the traded mussels come from farms whose location does not necessarily have to be built near sources of pollution. The black-skinned mussels - the most widespread variety in the kitchen of Europe - cling to long wooden hairs ("Byssusfäden") particularly strong on wooden posts, making them ideal breeding animals.
more on the subject
For our hobby recipe "mussels Asia style" we take the main ingredient part of the otherwise usual Mediterranean ingredients accompaniment and perfume the broth with the help of ginger, oyster sauce, lemongrass and sake in a slightly Asian direction, which is also absorbed by the seasoning of bread sticks , For the broth, it is also possible to use plated fresh lemongrass sticks instead of the paste from the glass, which, because of the often extremely high salt content, must be carefully dosed anyway.
And if the sharpness of the noble-spicy Shichimi Tgarashi powder is not enough, the mussel treats can also burn down with some hellish Thaichili.