Mussels poached in white wine, and how to keep your mussels alive!

Continuing our day of seafood-eating, we decided to buy some fresh mussels and cook them at home. We were at Sir D's place, and with his parents gone on holiday, we were at a bit of a loss what to do with said mussels. The friendly fishmongers at Claudio's Seafood at the Sydney Fish Markets had put them in a plastic bag for us - were we to store them in the bag? Store them in water? In the fridge or out?


As you can see, we were absolutely clueless, so after trawling the internet on what to do with them, Sir D compiled some points on how to prepare mussels for future reference. And so I present to you: Sir D's Guide to Keeping Those Babies Alive!

• Mussels and other shellfish such as oysters develop bacteria when they die, and you will get sick if you eat them! Sir D was quite taken aback by this news and thus made it his personal mission to keep his 'babies' alive - hence the name of this guide =P
• If you are not going to use them straight away, store your mussels in the bottom of your fridge, covered with a damp cloth. They're best eaten on the day you buy them, but will keep for a few days in the fridge if required.
• When preparing your mussels, look through them and chuck out any that have cracked or broken shells. If you see any that are slightly open, give them a squeeze and they should close if they're alive. If not, discard these as well.
• You probably want to get rid of the crap on the shells. To do this, grab a scrubbing brush and scrub the barnacles and other things off the surface of the shell under running water.
• You probably also want to get rid of the beards (those hairy looking things sticking out of the shell). To do this, grab hold of the beard and wiggle it from side to side, whilst pulling firmly. It should eventually break free from the mussel. If your mussel is being stubborn, you may have to cut it off with some scissors.
• Now that your mussels are clean on the outside, we have to get rid of any sand and other crap on the inside. To do this, soak the mussels in fresh water for about 10 minutes so that they can "breathe" and expel any sand. Remember to do this just before you cook them, otherwise they may die (and we don't want that happening!)
• Remove them from the water and check that the mussels with open shells are still alive by squeezing them again. Now you're ready to cook them!

Mussels poached in white wine

Admittedly our pot of white wine mussels didn't turn out to be the prettiest dish on the planet, but they sure tasted delicious with the briney taste of the mussels and the rich, creamy tomato sauce. And none of the sauce went to waste of course because we soaked it up with a fresh baguette ;)


We also had the 2nd dozen of oysters which we bought from the fish markets, which were still just as fresh and delicious as the dozen that we ate earlier in the day

The Sydney Fish Markets, Pyrmont

On an uncharacteristically warm (28ºC!) Sunday in winter, I had a craving. For seafood. And what better place to get fresh seafood than the Sydney Fish Markets? I don't go to the fish markets that often but when we do I get super excited because I know it means dozens of freshly shucked oysters, usually some sashimi, prawns, and the occasional crab or lobster. My idea of heaven!

Fresh sashimi cuts at Peter's Fish Market

Cooked and fresh blue swimmer crab