How much fresh mussels should be cooked. How to properly cook peeled frozen mussels according to a recipe with a photo. Several culinary recipes for mussel dishes

How to cook frozen mussels deliciously? Seafood is boiled peeled and in shells, fried in a pan, baked in the oven, cooked in a slow cooker, marinated. Compliance with culinary technologies, the addition of spices, seasonings and additional components allows you to get delicious meals.

Boiled peeled frozen mussels

Preparing peeled frozen mussels is quick and easy. Usually they are sold cooked and frozen.

General rules for the selection, pre-processing and preparation of seafood:

shellfish meat should be light, ice glazing is transparent, the contents of the package are not stuck together into a lump, ice conglomerate of the product indicates improper storage;
the defrosting procedure is carried out in a refrigerator, water, microwave oven in the "defrost" mode;
washing from grains of sand is mandatory;
boil frozen mussels for 3 to 5 minutes.

You will need:

mussels - 400 g;
olive oil - 20 g;
½ onion;
½ tomato;
3 cloves of garlic;
butter - 30 g;
glass of water;
dry white wine of the Sauvignon brand - 50 ml;
French baguette;
parsley, dill.

Step-by-step instruction:

Defrost the seafood, rinse, let the water drain.

Pour olive oil into the bottom of the pan, add thinly sliced onion, fry until transparent.

Pour boiling water, wine into a saucepan, put the mussels and cook for 5 minutes, remove them with a slotted spoon on a dish.

Finely chop the garlic and tomato, coarsely cut the fresh herbs.

Put butter, vegetables and herbs in the broth in which the seafood was cooked, cook for 3 minutes.

Pour the mussels with sauce.

Cut the French baguette and fry in olive oil, remove excess fat with paper towels and rub lightly with a clove of garlic.

Boiled mussels are served with croutons and a glass of Sauvignon wine. This dish is prepared quickly, and will help out the hostess when unexpected guests arrive, as an original treat.

Fried seafood in a pan

Mussels can be fried in a pan with vegetables. This dish will be delicious, with a side dish it will provide a feeling of satiety and give you a boost of vivacity. Cooking such a dinner will delight the household and will not require long-term hassle of the hostess.

You will need:

mussels - 400 g;
olive oil - 20 g;
shallot;
stalks of green onions;
chili peppers;
celery stalk;
one bay leaf;
a sprig of thyme;
a clove of garlic;
Vermouth wine - 50 ml;
dry white wine - 150 ml;
sour cream - 50 g;
parsley.

Step-by-step instruction:

Shallots and green onions, chili peppers, celery, cut into rings (obliquely), finely chop the garlic.

Pour the oil into the pan and put the chopped vegetables, put a bay leaf and a branch of thyme on top, salt and lightly fry.

Put the prepared mussels in the vegetable mass, mix, cover and heat for 4 minutes.

Add Vermouth, dry white wine and evaporate until thick.

At the end, add sour cream and coarsely chopped parsley.

Fried mussels with wine sauce can be served as an independent dish or as a hot dish for a second with boiled rice.

How to cook in seashells

Frozen mussels in shells are prepared in different ways: in a saucepan, in a frying pan, in a slow cooker according to simple and sophisticated recipes. Preliminary preparation includes cleaning the shells with a brush from sand, growths and algae. Discarded shells with ajar flaps before cooking and not opened during heat treatment.

You will need:

mussels in the valves - 450 g;
olive oil - 20 g;
leek;
carrot;
celery stalk;
one bay leaf;
a sprig of thyme;
a clove of garlic;
dry white wine - 300 ml;
curry, salt, saffron;
fat cream - 100 ml;
coriander greens.

Step-by-step instruction:

In a deep preheated frying pan, put a branch of thyme and bay leaf, prepared mussels in the shutters, pour out the white wine, cover with a lid and, shaking the seashells, warm up for a minute.

Drain the wine sauce through a colander, separate the clams from the shutters.

Cut celery, leeks, carrots into half rings, chop the garlic.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add herbs, salt, add saffron and curry, fry for a minute.

Strain the wine sauce into the vegetable mass, put the mussels, boil.

At the end, pour in the cream and pour in the chopped coriander.

The sauce according to this recipe can be made thick or thin to the taste of the hostess and depending on the side dish. Mussels go well with fried white fish.

Baked in a creamy sauce

Mussels can be baked in the oven with creamy sauce and cheese. Peeled molluscs are served with a side dish, placed in shells directly on portioned plates, decorated with herbs and lemon wedges.

You will need:

half-shell mussels - 1 kg;
blue cheese dor blue (you can adyghe, creamy) - 50 g;
butter - 30 g;
a clove of garlic;
fat cream - 350 ml;
salt, pepper, Provencal herbs;
a teaspoon of flour;
lemon;
basil greens.

Step-by-step instruction:

We clean the mussel shells, rinse with running water. We take out the mollusks from the valves and cut out the leg.

Put butter in a saucepan and melt, heat the chopped garlic clove in it.

Pour in the cream, pour in the Provencal herbs, salt, pepper, put the crumbled cheese, mix until completely dissolved in the creamy mass.

To thicken the gravy, add a teaspoon of flour, mix until smooth.

Put the leaves on a baking sheet, put the mussels in them, pour the cream sauce with a tablespoon.

We bake in an oven at 200 ° С for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle the finished shells with lemon juice and sprinkle with parsley. This dish will decorate the festive table and delight with taste.

Pickled mussels for beer

Pickled mussels for beer are prepared with available seasonings that are in constant use in the kitchen of every housewife. Spices enhance the pungency.

You will need:

mussels - 500 g;
olive oil - 20 g;
2 cloves of garlic;
soy sauce - 100 ml;
a tablespoon without a slide of salt;
a tablespoon without a slide of sugar;
cloves, black and allspice pepper, coriander grains to taste;
Bay leaf;
½ lemon (you can take table vinegar);
2 glasses of water;
basil greens.

Step-by-step instruction:

Defrost the mussels, rinse with running water.

Pour olive oil into the bottom of the saucepan, put crushed garlic cloves, heat until aromatic, but do not fry.

Pour in the soy sauce, squeeze the juice from ½ lemon, add sugar and salt, stir.

Pour in boiling water, pour in the spices, bring to a boil. We taste the marinade, add the declared ingredients if necessary.

Put the mussels in a boiling filling, cook over low heat for a minute from the moment of boiling.

Put the clams in a clean jar with a slotted spoon, fill in the marinade, add olive oil and chopped basil herbs, close the lid, let cool, put in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

Pickled mussels are a wonderful appetizer for cold beer in a friendly company. They can be used to prepare various salads.

Delicious sauce for pasta

Delicious creamy sauce with mussels goes very well with pasta and will compete with Russian naval pasta.

You will need:

mussels - 500 g;
olive oil - 20 g;
pasta - 400 g;
2 onions;
2 cloves of garlic;
dry white wine - 100 ml;
salt, pepper, nutmeg;
fat cream - 300 ml;
basil greens.

Step-by-step instruction:

Boil the pasta in salted water.

In a frying pan, fry the onion and garlic, cut into half rings.

We spread the prepared mussels, pour in white wine, warm up for a minute.

Salt, pepper, add a pinch of nutmeg, pour out the cream, simmer for 3 minutes.

Cut the basil greens into the cooked clams and spread the pasta, mix everything.

Pasta with mussel sauce will satisfy your family. The alternation of meat and seafood diversifies the home menu. To reduce the calorie content of the dish, cream is excluded from the recipe, mussels are stewed with vegetables (tomatoes, zucchini), at the end you can add a little yogurt.

Cooking in a multicooker

Multifunctional household appliances have become part of everyday life. Cooking mussels in a multicooker allows you to cook a dish without everyday hassle (control of time, temperature, food readiness), the device will perform all functions in automatic mode.

You will need:

mussels - 400 g;
rice noodles - 400 g;
olive oil - 20 g;
leek;
tomato;
one bay leaf;
a clove of garlic;
salt pepper;
fat cream - 100 ml;
parsley.

Step-by-step instruction:

In the "Frying" mode, fry the onion cut into half rings in olive oil until transparent.

Remove the peel from the tomato, cut the garlic clove, grind everything together with a blender, pour into the fried onions, stir, fry for a minute.

In the "Cooking" mode, pour hot water into the vegetable mass and pour the prepared mussels, salt, pepper, bring to a boil.

Pour out the cream, spread the rice noodles, close the lid, set the time to 5 minutes.

Make the creamy sauce thick or thin to taste.

Delicious rice noodles with seafood and tomato creamy seasoning will feed the family. As a dietary meal or when overweight, the cream is replaced with low-fat yogurt and the olive oil content is reduced.

Seafood dishes will help diversify your daily homemade food and provide the body with vital substances and vitamins.

Peeled shell-less mussels are often sold frozen and do not need to be peeled. Learn to cook them deliciously, and then your loved ones will not claim that life is good even without this shellfish.

Mussels, as one of the most popular seafood, are renowned for their nutritional value and health benefits. However, having tasted the inhabitants of exotic molluscs in shells, not many remain fans of their taste. This is because this shellfish is not always prepared correctly. There are certain rules that are followed when cooking so that the shellfish becomes truly tasty. Let's see how to make frozen peeled mussels so that they taste delicious and unforgettable.

Useful properties of mussels

These amazing shellfish contain a large amount of amino acids necessary for a person. For example, the amino acid tryptophan, which promotes the production of the hormone of joy. Mussel protein is superior to fish and meat proteins in terms of tryptophan, methionine, and keratin content. Getting methionine from food is necessary for a person, since this amino acid is not synthesized in our body. These shellfish contain a lot of zinc, and they have a beneficial effect on the health of our skin, nails and hair.

For lovers of diets, mussels are just a godsend. They contain a lot of protein, practically no fat, and those that do not contain "bad" cholesterol. Keratin reduces appetite, promotes the production of melanin and reduces fat, it improves the functioning of the adrenal glands, thyroid gland and pituitary gland. Adhering to various diets, you can eat delicious and delicious dishes with this seafood without getting better at all. Caloric content - 100 kcal / 1 kg of product.

It is interesting! The average Dutchman eats about 10 kg of mussel meat per year.

In order for the dish to be tasty and healthy, the ingredients must be fresh and of high quality. Here are some tips for picking good mussels:

Frozen seafood should be free of snow and cracks in the ice glaze. If there are such defects, most likely, the product has already been thawed, and during the next freezing its useful properties were lost.
Peeled frozen shellfish should be light in color
Choose the largest mussels - they are considered juicier and tastier. On packages with this product, two numbers are always indicated with a fraction, which tell the buyer about the number of pieces of the product per kilogram, for example, 55/1 or 30/1. Therefore, the lower the first number, the larger the shellfish will be.
Mussels are a natural filter of the aquatic environment. They filter up to 700 liters of water per day. If shellfish are grown in ecologically polluted regions, they can accumulate a lot of toxins. It is best not to use such a product as there is a high likelihood of poisoning. When choosing a product, look at the packaging for the place of production or, if you buy in bulk, ask the seller for a quality certificate.

It is interesting! From 1 kilogram of unpeeled mussels, about 100 grams of peeled ones come out.

Preparation for cooking

Freshly frozen peeled shellfish must be thawed in the refrigerator compartment. After that, rinse them well in a colander under a strong pressure of water, as there may be particles of sand in the meat.

How to cook frozen peeled mussels: cooking methods

Mussels are cooked in a variety of ways: in a slow cooker, microwave, steam. They are boiled, fried, baked, pickled. They need to be thermally processed only 3-5 minutes. This dietary seafood is used for making soups, salads, snacks, hot dishes.

Tip: sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent the smell of fish in the mussels.

Fried mussels with onions

A very easy way to cook. The clams need to be blanched for a couple of 15 minutes. Heat olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onions in it. Cut the blanched clams into small pieces and mix with fried onions. Salt and pepper. The dish is ready in 5 minutes.

Here's a look at how to fry mussels in a pan.

Belgian mussels

Pour 700 g of white wine into a saucepan and put on low heat, let the wine simmer for about one minute. Then add some Provencal herbs and send 400 grams of mussels there. Leave to simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally in a saucepan. You need to simmer for 5-7 minutes.

Sauce. In a small saucepan, heat 500 ml of low-fat cream and add one tablespoon of Dijon mustard. Chop the leeks finely and add to the cream as well. Some cooks add some capers along with onions. Cut about 200 g of blue blue cheese into small cubes and add to our sauce. Season with white pepper and bring the sauce to readiness, to a state of thick sour cream.

We put the mussels in a colander, put them on a plate, water and serve.

Mussels baked with creamy sauce

Cook the mussels in salted water for 3-5 minutes, then drain the water. For the sauce, mash 2 processed cheese well with a fork, add one chicken yolk, one tablespoon of flour, one tablespoon of starch, squeeze out 3 cloves of garlic and mix well until smooth. Add about 300 grams of cream to the resulting mixture, salt, pepper and mix everything well again.

Lay out the baking dish with foil or grease with butter, and put boiled shellfish into it. Pour the sauce over the dish and sprinkle with grated hard cheese on top. We put all this in an oven preheated to 200◦ and bake until golden brown. When serving, sprinkle with grated cheese again.

To cook this seafood, heat treatment is not necessary, they are simply marinated. For the brine, boil 1 liter of water in a saucepan, throw one peeled onion, one red pepper into the boiling water and salt. Boil the brine for 15 minutes. Add one teaspoon of liquid smoke, 0.5 kilograms of thawed peeled mussels and leave to cook for another 3 minutes.

In a separate bowl, mix chopped garlic (1 head) and spices to taste. For example, 2 tablespoons of dry dill and one teaspoon of black peppercorns will do.

We take out the seafood cooked in brine from the pan. Put the garlic with spices in a half-liter jar on the bottom, put the shellfish on top. Fill all 200 milliliters of vegetable oil. After 12 hours, fragrant pickled mussels are ready! They are served as a snack or used as an ingredient in other dishes.

Setting the "Baking" mode, fry the defrosted mussels in olive oil. Cooking in this mode is designed for 25 minutes, but you need to fry - 15. After 15 minutes, add two fresh tomatoes chopped in a blender and 200 ml of low-fat cream to the seafood. We leave the dish in the multicooker until the end of the "Baking" mode, that is, for another 10 minutes. The excess liquid will evaporate, and the mussels will acquire a pleasant tomato-creamy taste.
These mussels are served with any side dish, for example, you can mash the baked celery root with butter.

Lovers of pasta will surely appreciate the simplicity of this recipe, and the dish will become one of their favorites. In the same water, cook in turn: 200 g of mussels, 200 g of shrimp, 200 g of squid. Boil each seafood for 5 minutes. When all the seafood is cooked, we do not pour out the broth, we will need it for the sauce.

Fry 4 large garlic cloves in a large skillet in butter. When the garlic has added flavor to the oil, take it out and discard it. Put 500 g of pasta for pasta cooked until half cooked in the aromatic oil. Add boiled seafood there, salt and pepper to taste and add 200-300 ml of broth in which the seafood was cooked. All this must be mixed well, covered with a lid and brought to readiness for 10 minutes.

Sauce. For the sauce, you will need 150 ml of seafood broth, 150 ml of low-fat cream. All this needs to be salted and thickened over low heat with 1-2 tablespoons of flour.

Serve the pasta with creamy sauce on a large plate. Garnish with parsley sprigs before serving.

Mussel snack for beer

An excellent beer snack is fried mussels with cheese. Such an appetizer is prepared very easily and quickly.

So, heat 100 grams of butter in a pan, add 3 cloves of grated garlic to it. The garlic must be browned a little to convey the smell to the oil. Next, carefully remove the fried garlic from the pan with a slotted spoon. We immerse our mollusks in fragrant oil. Salt, pepper and fry everything over high heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add grated cheese to the pan, mix well and bring the dish to readiness within a minute. The beer snack is ready! Bon Appetit!

If you are tired of everyday food, then turn your attention to seafood. These unique food products can significantly diversify the everyday and festive menu. You can make delicious salads, soups, side dishes from them. One of the most popular seafood is mussels. These mollusks have a tender, juicy, slightly sweetish pulp. In addition, it will take very little time to prepare a dish with mussels (especially if you buy peeled seafood), since mussels are boiled for only a few minutes.

How to cook frozen mussels?

Mussels can be cooked in a variety of ways. They can be fried, baked, stewed, or boiled. The last method is the simplest and most common.

For cooking we need:

frozen mussels - 300 g;
table salt - 1 tsp;
drinking water - 1 glass.

Cooking method:

Prepare a small saucepan, pour water into it and put it on fire. Add a spoonful of salt and as soon as the water boils, load frozen mussels there, without defrosting them first. Mussels are boiled for about 7-10 minutes. After draining the water, the mussels are ready to eat. You can make a pasta with seafood from them, you can collect a delicious salad with seafood, or you can season with spices, pour in a creamy sauce and eat like that. Bon Appetit!

Boiled mussel soup

Mussels can also be used to make a delicious, light, low-calorie soup.

For this we need (for 5 servings):

garlic cloves - 2-3 pcs.;
mussels (peeled frozen) - 2 kg;
bread - 2-3 slices;
olive oil - 2-3 tablespoons;
onions - 2 heads;
some greens, pepper and salt.

Cooking method:

To begin with, boil mussels without shells as described above. We remove the finished mollusks from the saucepan, and filter the broth through a fine-fine sieve to weed out the smallest particles that have got into the broth from the mussels. Return the pure broth to the saucepan, dilute with four cups (250 ml) of water, add the seafood and bring the soup to a boil.

Meanwhile, fry in olive oil from chopped onions and garlic. When the vegetables are browned, put them in the mussel soup. At the very end of cooking, season the dish with bread crumbs, black pepper and salt. Seafood soup is best served warm. Bon appetit, everyone!

Tender mussel meat does not require long cooking.

If the shellfish are kept in boiling water for more than the prescribed time, they will become tough and completely unsuitable for human consumption.

In any case, the pleasure that properly cooked mussel meat gives will be gone. How to cook mussels to keep all the beauty of their sea freshness?

How to choose mussels

For obvious reasons, mussels are delivered to Russian stores frozen. If this is your first time buying this wonderful food item, you need to know how to choose really good quality mussels.

Molluscs in shells should be intact, without cracks and snowy "paths" in the glaze. Otherwise, there is a high risk that the mussels have already been thawed, which means that the nutritional value and benefits are reduced to zero.

The normal color of peeled mussels is light. If the meat is dark, it may spoil.

When buying, you need to give preference to products of well-known brands, as a last resort, check for certificates. The fact is that mussels pass water through themselves and have the ability to accumulate toxins and other nasty things, including poisons that are deadly to health;

Large molluscs are most delicious: they have more meat and juice. The packaging indicates the number of shellfish in relation to the kilogram weight. The lower this number, the larger the pieces are in the package.

Note: from a kilogram of mussels in a shell, about one hundred grams of pure meat is obtained.

How to prepare mussels for boiling and how to boil them

Frozen mussels with and without shell are prepared differently. In this case, you can pre-thaw the mollusks in the shell or not - a matter of taste. But in any case, you will have to wash it thoroughly: sand and algae may remain in the mussels.

If you decide to defrost the clams, you can do it like this:

Place the meat cleaned from the shell in the refrigerator for defrosting for 2-3 hours;

Another option is to defrost the clams in cold water (this method works well for unpeeled mussels).

The defrosted product must be put in a colander and rinsed thoroughly with a stream of ice water. If you do not plan to thaw the mollusks, you just need to wash them, and additionally rub the shell with a brush to remove adhering grains of sand and fragments of ocean flora.

How to cook mussels? First rule: throw the product into already boiled water and be sure to wait until it boils again. From this moment, count down the exact number of cooking minutes so as not to spoil the meat.

Second rule: a minimum of water, especially if the mussels have already been cleaned. If you pour too much liquid, then a lot of juice will simply disappear. The broth will turn out to be rich, but this is completely unnecessary, since the broth is rarely used for food. To preserve the taste as much as possible, there should be little water: it should only fill the meat a little.

When boiling mussels in a shell, pay attention to the condition of the valves. If the allotted time from the moment of boiling has passed, and the flap has not opened, this instance can be safely thrown away: in front of you is a spoiled mollusk that is not suitable for food. From the opened shell, the meat must be removed, flavored with an aromatic additive to your liking, eaten just like that or used to prepare your favorite dish.

As for the spices, it's a matter of taste. Some people like the natural sea taste of delicate mussels. In this case, you should not drown it out with aromas alien to the sea. Someone, on the contrary, prefers to emphasize the taste of shellfish with lemon, bay leaf, pepper, olive oil, garlic.

How much to cook mussels in shells

Mussels come in three main forms:

Frozen in shells;

Frozen, peeled from shell (raw);

Boiled-frozen peeled.

How much mussels to cook depends on the degree of preliminary preparation of the product. The most interesting, but not very convenient option is shellfish. The product is ideal for romantics who want to feel like they are on the seaside or in a small Italian restaurant.

Unpeeled mussels in shells are boiled for 7 to 10 minutes. If the food has not been defrosted beforehand, the cooking time can be increased by 1-2 minutes. The traditional method of boiling in water is not the only one: mussels can be boiled in white wine or beer.

Traditional cooking method

Pour two glasses of water into a saucepan and bring to a boil.

After boiling, add salt to taste and toss in 450-500 grams of mussels.

After the secondary boil, cook the clams for 8-10 minutes.

The opened mussels are ready.

You can serve them whole without removing them from the shell and spreading them out on beautiful plates. Drizzle with fresh lemon juice or place lemon wedges on a plate. Additionally, you can serve any sauce and herbs.

If you need to use meat for cooking, for example, salad, remove the flap, and rinse the mussels additionally with warm water.

Mussels boiled in white wine

Wine aroma adds piquancy to tender meat. Better to take inexpensive dry wine. You can replace it with a semi-dry or semi-sweet variety.

Pour one and a half glasses of dry white wine into a saucepan.

After boiling, put 300-350 grams of mussels.

Boil for 7-10 minutes after the liquid boils again.

Remove the prepared mussels from the liquid with a slotted spoon, arrange on plates and serve. Discard any unopened shells. You can serve the dish with cheese or creamy sauce.

Mussels brewed in beer

Mussels are often served with beer, pre-fried in a garlic-cheese sauce. However, the frothy drink itself can be an excellent medium for boiling mussels in the sink. It is advisable to use a spicy dark beer: it has a special aroma that goes well with the taste of shellfish meat. On request, you can take light beers.

Pour two glasses of beer into a saucepan.

When the drink boils, gently put 450 grams of thawed mussels there.

Boil for 5-6 minutes.

Serve with lemon and garlic appetizer. Optionally, offer a glass of chilled beer to the mussels.

How to cook frozen mussels without shell

If you don't want to mess with the romance of shells, you can buy freshly peeled mussels. How much to cook mussels without a shell? After boiling, this will take no more than 7 minutes if the product is used unfrozen. Pre-thawed mussel meat is cooked for no more than 5 minutes.

How to cook frozen mussels? The traditional method of boiling in water is no different from the above. You need to bring a small amount of water to a boil and lower the shellfish there. Use the meat for the preparation of second courses.

More interesting is the method of cooking, in which mussels become a separate dish.

Mussels cooked in wine with spices

Bring to a boil one and a half glasses of dry white wine.

When it boils, put some seafood spices in the water, salt to taste, add pepper.

If you want to shade the sea taste even more, you can use seasonal greens.

Dip 300 grams of mussels from boiling wine.

Cook for five minutes, covered over very low heat.

Remove the finished mussels with a slotted spoon and serve as a dish on your own. Decorate the plate with lemon wedges. Fresh lemon juice, which can be used to flavor the dish, goes well with the taste of seafood.

Mussels boiled in milk

Unusual, but very tasty combination of sea taste with milk aroma. How to cook frozen mussels in milk?

Pour a little milk into a saucepan (glass and a half).

When the milk starts to boil, add salt to it.

Lower the mussels (300-400 grams is enough) and while stirring so that the milk does not boil away, boil the clam meat for no more than five minutes.

In this way, you can cook shellfish with a shell, respectively, increasing the cooking time by 5-7 minutes.

How to cook boiled frozen mussels

Near-Instant Dish - Popular boiled mussels that are frozen after cooking. In fact, they do not need heat treatment, but, you must admit, I don't really want to use them in this form (even after defrosting). Therefore, before serving, the finished product needs to be slightly freshened.

How to cook boiled frozen mussels? Just boil water, salt it, lower the mussels and hold after the second boil for no more than two, maximum three minutes in boiling salted water. You can add herbs, spices, or fresh herbs to your taste. Then put it in a colander, let the water drain and cook according to the further recipe.

There is another way to boil ready-made frozen shellfish: in olive oil. How to cook boiled frozen mussels this way?

Pour an incomplete glass of olive oil (about two-thirds) into a saucepan.

Add a spoonful of fish or seafood spices, stir.

Add a clove of garlic if desired (optional).

When the oil starts to boil, put a bag of mussels and heat in boiling oil for 2-3 minutes.

Spread the mussels boiled in this way on a paper towel to remove excess oil. Serve with herbs as an independent, very juicy and tender dish.

Peeled mussels are often sold frozen. Learn to cook them deliciously, and then your loved ones will not claim that life is good even without this shellfish.

Mussels, as one of the most popular seafood, are renowned for their nutritional value and health benefits. However, having tasted the inhabitants of exotic seashells, not many remain fans of their taste. This is because this shellfish is not always prepared correctly. There are certain rules that are followed when cooking so that the shellfish becomes truly tasty. Let's take a look at how to cook frozen peeled mussels to taste delicious and unforgettable.

Useful properties of mussels

It is interesting! The average Dutchman eats about 10 kg of mussel meat per year.

How to choose quality frozen mussels

In order for the dish to be tasty and healthy, the ingredients must be fresh and of high quality. Here are some tips for picking good mussels:

Frozen seafood should be free of snow and cracks in the ice glaze. If there are such defects, most likely, the product has already been thawed, and during the next freezing its useful properties were lost.
Peeled frozen shellfish should be light in color
Choose the largest mussels - they are considered juicier and tastier. On packages with this product, two numbers are always indicated with a fraction, which tell the buyer about the number of pieces of the product per kilogram, for example, 55/1 or 30/1. Therefore, the lower the first number, the larger the shellfish will be.
Mussels are a natural filter of the aquatic environment. They filter up to 700 liters of water per day. If shellfish are grown in ecologically polluted regions, they can accumulate a lot of toxins. It is best not to use such a product as there is a high likelihood of poisoning. When choosing a product, look at the packaging for the place of production or, if you buy in bulk, ask the seller for a quality certificate.

It is interesting! From 1 kilogram of unpeeled mussels, about 100 grams of peeled ones come out.

Preparation for cooking

Frozen peeled shellfish must be thawed in the refrigerator compartment. After that, rinse them well in a colander under a strong pressure of water, as there may be particles of sand in the meat.

How to cook frozen peeled mussels: cooking methods

Mussels are cooked in a variety of ways: in a slow cooker, microwave, steam. They are boiled, fried, baked, pickled. They need to be thermally processed only 3-5 minutes. This seafood is used for making soups, salads, snacks, hot dishes.

Tip: sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent the smell of fish in the mussels.