Buttered Mussels with Cajun Spices

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• Tasty and impressive
• What to serve with buttered mussels
• Quick and easy to prepare
• Buttered mussels - always the star of the show
• Varieties
• A delicious version of a classic Moules Mariniere
• How to make buttered mussels with cajun spices
• More mussels recipes
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• Buttered mussels with cajun spices recipe

A dish of delicious buttered mussels infused with the irresistible essence of cajun spices. With this twist on a classic Moules Mariniere, we embellish the traditional white wine, parsley and garlic combination with the addition of velvety butter and an addictive hit of hot, bold cajun chilli.

Tasty and impressive

A pot of mussels is a very tasty, quick and easy dish to prepare. This buttered mussels recipe simply calls for a kilo of fresh mussels, a little shallot, celery and garlic with a splash of dry white wine, just as you would have in a classic Moules Mariniere but with a simple twist of cajun spices with a Louisiana hot sauce, a zing of lime and Worcestershire sauce. A pot with a heavy lid will see this dish cook in a matter of minutes on the hob which will bring a big bowl of satisfying, steamed mussels from kitchen to table in moments. It may just become your favourite go-to mussels dish.

What to serve with buttered mussels

If you’re staring avidly at the menu at seaside restaurant or pub, one of the go-to dishes will most definitely be a kilo of mussels. Lovingly prepared in a flavoursome stock, served with crusty bread or a bowl of perfectly crisp french french or chunky triple-cooked chips and all downed together with a glass of dry white wine or thirst-quenching beer. If that vision is enough to whet your appetite, then you needn’t worry about not being there, or even in a French or Belgian brasserie where the moules menu is conclusive to say the least! You can simply make this dish at home.

Quick and easy to prepare

Cooking mussels, is no longer the daunting task it was once perceived to be. Most supermarkets will have a box of pre-cooked mussels in store you could use, just take away their pre-prepared sauce and add your own. However, a fresh kilo of mussels is way better. They are easy to clean, easy to spot if they aren’t quite right and easy to prepare in a matter of minutes to bring an exceptionally tasty and impressive dish from oven to table a much quicker time than most meals. There is also a much healthier measure of protein in a bowl of mussels than in a lot of other dishes. Pair that with a little carbs in the form of some crusty bread or home-cooked chips and you are ready to fill up.

Buttered mussels - always the star of the show

Mussels are also a fairly unique ingredient when it comes to their preparation in a dish as the star of their own show. There are really only two classic ways of serving them, either in a big pot with a flavoured stock, or in half their shell and gratinated known as moules farcies. This makes it bizarrely easy to come up with a multitude of different ways to serve them, but ultimately all prepared in the same way. A mussels restaurant for example serves mussels in white wine (Moules Mariniere) or mussels in cream, or curry or provencal or some other tasty soupy concoction. Always in a pot and always with a brothy sauce or always in their shell with another sauce and baked. What you don’t find in a restaurant dedicated to mussels is a pasta dish with mussels or a mussel pate, no mussel souffle, deep fried, sous vide or pureed mussel dish. All of which could be easily created but not done. A fish restaurant on the other hand has all the culinary creations and gadgetry to showcase their fayre but mussels do not need this extravagance. Just create a good sauce for the crustaceans to cook in and you’re good to go, and this recipe does exactly that.

Varieties

When it comes to the varieties of sauces you can cook mussels in, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands. There are however a few varieties that no self-respecting menu would be without and Moules Mariniere would perhaps be the most traditional and well-known of them all. 

A dish of limited ingredients, mussels, white wine, garlic and parsley. That is it, simplicity in perfection. Of course, embellishments such as shallot, parsley and butter are acceptable as is cream, although that is technically moules a la creme, but this particular dish is the original and perhaps the greatest of them all. Or is it?

A delicious version of a classic Moules Mariniere

This buttered mussels recipe is a cajun version of a classic Moules Mariniere. A base of garlic, white wine and parsley (and to be fair, we like the shallot, celery and butter too) but with a simple twist of addition of cajun spices. It is as easy as that, but wow, what a difference a little spice does. Firstly there is heat from chilli which is literally addictive, more zing and more oomph, and more depth of flavour and umami from another selection of limited ingredients that make up the Cajun scale of flavour.

The cajun flavouring’s origins come via French colonists known as Acadians, who were deported from Eastern Canada back in the 1700’s who then re-settled in southern Louisiana. The hotter climate of the south changed the way they cooked their original French dishes and over time, with the addition of indigenous American ingredients as well as African American influences, the Cajun cuisine was born. A french mirepoix, which is onion/shallot with celery and leeks, and sometimes carrot, is the base for many classic dishes. These settlers would have used these ingredients and this technique for the base of many dishes, however with the abundance of a variety of peppers, this formula changed giving way to what in Cajun cuisine is the holy trinity of ingredients, onion, celery and pepper.  

How to make buttered mussels with cajun spices

This buttered mussels recipe uses this trio of ingredients, a chopped onion, a chopped celery and for the pepper, we use a Louisiana hot pepper sauce condiment (and a little goes a long way, so you don’t need much) We add a  little garlic, parsley and Worcestershire sauce too which are also traditional Cajun ingredients. 

To start making this buttered mussels dish, first clean the mussels under running water to remove any mud and seaweed and remove their beards, which are the grassy strands that mussels use to cling onto surfaces under the sea. Check for any broken ones and ones that don’t appear fresh and discard them. It is worth noting that fresh mussels like most bivalves are sold and cooked live. They perish very quickly once they are dead so it is important to discard these ones. Dead ones will generally be open-shelled but won’t close once disturbed as live ones will do. Most live mussels will be closed but some will be open. To determine which ones are dead or alive if they are open, gently close the shells with your fingers a few times and they will stay closed if living, if not, they will be dead so throw them away.

Next, finely chop the onion (or shallot), celery and garlic and fry these ingredients in a shallow casserole dish in some olive oil and add the hot sauce. This is a speedy dish and you only need to fry the base vegetables on high heat for only two to three minutes. This way all the flavours stay fresh and discernible from each other which is actually what you want. At this point add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and throw in the mussels. If you want to, you could add an optional splash of pastis such as Ricard or Pernod and flambé, as it works very well just like it does in Oysters Rockefeller by adding an extra powerful flavour of liquorice.

Next, add a large glass of decent dry white wine and cover it with a heavy lid so that the mussels can steam in this fragrant and spicy stock. Using a cast iron shallow casserole dish acts a little bit like a pressure cooker by not allowing the steam to escape, which in turn cooks the mussels quicker. If you do not have a heavy dish and need to use a pan with a lid, then amend the cooking time to allow the mussels to cook for a few minutes longer. When they are done, all the shells will have opened and the meat will be opaque and firm. If the meat looks pale and gelatinous, they need more time.

Once cooked, it is time to add a few large knobs of salted butter and stir through. The butter adds depth of flavour to the sauce as well as giving it a more luscious buttery consistency. Finally liberally throw in some chopped parsley and squeeze a little fresh lime over and serve straight away whilst piping hot with some crispy fries or bread.

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