steamed mussles

A superfun day today with Stacy, my cooking friend. Stacey also has a cooking blog and seeks adventures in the markets of Madrid :)

So I followed her example and got mussles! M-E-J-I-L-L-O-N-E-S  en español.

So Stacy and I ventured ourselves in the market of Anton Martín, near Atocha. Fun place! A mix of spanish, indian and chinese shops.  I bought a few fun things, indian bread, sushi seaweed "paper" for Maki Rolls, but Im proud to say I also got mejillones.

I cooked them the most normal way. Al vapor or steamed. Here it goes:

• 500 gr. of mussles.
• 1 lemon,
• Half glass of water and salt

1. Clean the mussles. You have to clean them quite well. Mussles come with all sorts of things stuck to the shell and you really need to get rid of most of it. Otherwise the water will taste like that and it is just not very hygienic overall. I scrubbed with a knife. I did a first round of scrabing and then realized that I probably had to do a second one. Really, this is what took the majority of the time. About 15 min.
2. Put the muscles in a pot with half a glass of water and salt. Put a lid on it and let it cook for 5 min, or until the mussles start opening. 
3. That's it! Pick them up and place them on a plate. Squeeze a lemon over them and let them cool a bit.
4. That's it. Delicious! and totally worth the mess you'll have in the kitchen. Not bad for 1 euro and for 40 cents. I had it with some empanada Maria made and with tinto de verano. So good. Be brave and try it.