mussels in white wine sauce with spaghetti

feb 3, 2024 (sat).............replicate a dish from you tube video and cook this not easy to fail seafood dish

benchmark video (you tuber bob's your uncle) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50Et6EGvZ_Y&t=316s

introduction

- hong kongers love eating seafood and lots of seafood variety is available there

- there is a belgium restaurant (frites) famous for mussels in hong kong............choices of cooking in white wine, beer, laksa etc

- i personally prefer white wine

- last time cooked mussel without pasta...............this time cook spaghetti altogether in 1 go (just lazy :p)

main ingredients

- mussel (this pack ~1kg)

- white wine (2 cups)

- smoked bacon/ speck

- shallot

- garlic (4 cloves)

- fennel

- butter

- parsley

- pasta of your choice (i follow tradition and use spaghetti)

steps

1. ready a bowl of water, add salt and some metal utensils (claimed quicker for the mussel to spit the dirt inside)

2. brush every mussel...........drop those which are opened (ie dead)...............see the dirt from mussels

3. put the cleaned mussels into a bowl of salt water.............soak for few hours

4. slice garlic, dice shallot, slice fennel, chop parsley

5. wash the mussels once again and drain them

6. select saute mode...........low temperature for 15 mins

7. fry garlic and shallot until fragrant

8. add smoked bacon and fry for ~2 mins

9. add fennel and fry for ~1 min

10. add 2 cups white wine.........after boiling, cook for ~1 min...........then add ~20g butter

11. when boiling..............add spaghetti

12. once all spaghetti turn soft and submerged into white wine sauce.................cover with lid and cook for 1-2 mins (depends on your preferred texture..............later will cook for 5 mins more)

13. add in mussel and cover with lid.............let it cook for ~5 mins

14. switch off.............and let it stay for 1 min

15. add chopped parsley and mix well

16. take out all mussels to avoid continue cooking

17. plating..............done

taste
-in general mussels are fatty and fresh (no single piece needs to throw away)............most of them are just cook right, tender, juicy, sweet and flavorful

-spaghetti is well soaked in white wine sauce...........getting all oceanic and bacon savoury flavors

-i use the remaining white wine sauce and cook another pasta dish

areas of improvement
-reduce the cooking time of spaghetti to 1 min (coz i prefer al dente texture)

-coz white wine sauce is a bit salty to me...............next time will add 50-100ml water to dilute it