I found this South Indian inspired recipe in a recent purchase from a charity shop – ” Gastro-Geek” by Regina Sabur- Cross. I discovered that Regina had a food blog in 2009 and although it does not seem to have been updated recently more of her recipes can be found here- https://gastrogeek.wordpress.com. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 kg mussels
- 40 g butter plus a splash of olive oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 15-20 curry leaves
- 2 onions (about 225g) peeled and finely chopped
- 3 bay leaves
- 6-8 plump cloves garlic peeled and crushed
- 1 tsp Chilli powder
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp salt
- 1-2 dried red chillies
- 1 tsp tsp. sugar
- 1 tsp tamarind paste
- 200 g wholegrain/brown basmati rice
- 300 ml dry cider
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 200 ml vegetable stock
- 150 g frozen peas
- fresh coriander and lime wedges to serve
Servings:
Instructions
- Check over the mussels, ripping out any beards, chucking away any that are broken, or that refuse to close despite being given a good tap against a hard surface. Stick the rest in a colander and wash under cold running water for a couple of minutes.
- Melt the butter over a medium heat and add the olive oil to prevent burning. Once it’s hot add the curry leaves, mustard and cumin seeds and allow to spit and crackle. Add the onion, bay leaves, garlic, chilli powder, curry powder, turmeric, salt and dried chillies and reduce to a very low heat. Allow to slowly brown and caramelise for a good half an hour or so.
- Add the rice and stir for a couple of minutes. Glug in the cider and tamarind paste and turn the heat up to reduce until almost completely evaporated. Add the coconut milk, stock and sugar. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer until the rice is almost cooked through (this took about 25 minutes, but it depends on your rice).
- Remove the lid and add the peas and mussels. Turn the heat up fairly high and put the lid on. After about 10 minutes they should all have opened (discard any that haven’t).
- Ladle the rice into warm soup bowls, pile the mussels on top, squeeze with plenty of lime juice and strew with the coriander.
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