So I’ll start by saying this recipe is more Asian inspired than authentic to any one country, but these Asian baked mussels are still delicious. Mussels are one of my favorite seafood ingredients because they are so affordable. A kilo of mussels is just a few dollars, which makes it super cheap to make something like fried mussels, or even my popular Moules Au Roquefort.
These Asian baked mussels are different than my other mussels recipe because they are baked on the half shell. Buying whole mussels is even cheaper than buying just the meat, but it does mean a bit of cleaning. No worries, it doesn’t take long, and here I show you what needs to be done.
You can even splurge and buy some New Zealand Green Mussels which are already frozen on the half shell. They are a bit more expensive, but larger and sweeter than their black counterpart.
After opening the mussels by boiling them in water for a couple minutes, you can break open the shell. Use your fingers to pry the mussel out of the shell, which will leave a hole where the root was. I use tweezers to rip out the foot. There’s nothing wrong with eating them, and in fact I rarely do rip it out, but this time I decided to pull them off.
The shells should be scrubbed free of any barnacles, and the adductor muscle (the hard white bit that attaches the mussel meat to the shell). I just use a thin knife for this. The shells should be placed on a foil lined baking tray and then brushed with a bit of neutral oil.
Put your clean mussels back in the shell. It does not matter if it is the mussels original shell, just try to find ones that fit okay-ish. Now it is time to make the sauce.
The base of this sauce is mayonnaise. This ingredient is great in these Asian baked mussels and gets so creamy and delicious after the oven. Mixed into the mayonnaise is minced garlic, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, chili flakes, and Thai Sweet Chili sauce. Of course that last ingredient is why I say these are Asian inspired. Mix all those ingredients together. You can use store bought mayonnaise, or make it yourself using my recipe for homemade mayonnaise.
Spoon the sauce over the mussels into a dome shape. It will broil under the heat of the oven and get great bubbles. Just bake these at 200 Celsius for 5 minutes and that’s it. Your Asian baked mussels are ready to be served. I garnish them with some thinly sliced green onion for presentation.
Asian Baked Mussels
Equipment
- Baking Tray
Ingredients
- 1 kg Mussels with the shell
- 1 cup mayonnaise store bought or homemade
- 4 cloves Garlic minced
- 2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 tbsp Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
- 1 tsp Red Chili Flakes
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper freshly cracked
- 1 pinch Salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200 Celsius. Take your mussels and put them in boiling water for 2 minutes, just to open the shell (yes this also cooks them just enough). Strain and put into a bowl of cold water.
- Clean your mussels by removing the mussel from the shell, ripping away the beard, any algae, and the foot (optional). Set the mussels in a bowl of lightly salted water.
- Clean the shell by scraping off the adductor muscle (hard white bit) and then put half the shells on a foil lined baking tray.
- Put the cleaned mussel meat back into the half shell.
- Make the sauce by mixing together all the rest of the ingredients. Spoon the mixture over the half shelled mussels in a sort of dome form.
- Put the tray into the top rack of your oven (or broiler if you have it) for 5 minutes. You want to blacken the mayonnaise mixture just slightly.
- Remove and serve.
