The most common way to eat mussels is to rinse porcelain, or dip in soy sauce and mustard sauce.

Like clams, oysters and other bivalves, live clams are the most popular, and it is best to put them in a cold salt pond with good water circulation. Canada's elephant mussels are produced in the clean and remote coastal waters of the province, and are well-known for their high quality and meticulous fishing and packaging methods. Ivory mussels are vividly called "ivory mussels" by China people because of their large and fleshy rainbow tubes, and are regarded as treasures because of their extremely sweet taste and crisp texture.

When buying live mussels, choose fresh, fleshy and sturdy mussels. If you want to cook mussels on the same day, please ask the clerk to take them out of the shell for you and remove the dark oval stomach the size of an egg. The rest should be the rainbow tube. In this regard, the professional underwater fishermen's association suggests not to eat the dark stomach or "internal organs" of mussels.

When preparing, cut the rainbow tube from the flesh of the body, and longitudinally split it in two holes at the thicker end. Then, with an extremely sharp knife, cut the rainbow tube obliquely into paper-like slices. After removing the soft part, the meat of the body can be sliced and served like a rainbow tube, or it can be chopped and put into a delicious thick soup.

It should be reminded that mussels will soon harden after being cooked. So it's best to cook it very quickly in a pot of clear soup with boiling water, or throw it into the boiling sauce as quickly as possible.

Here, I recommend a quick and simple dipping sauce with boiling water and boiling water:

Heat Japanese soy sauce and the same amount of canned chicken soup on the fire or in the microwave oven, and add one or two small peppers. Season with a little sugar and add some chopped shallots or coriander. Sprinkle some sesame oil, or add some mussels when frying snow beans, carrots and water chestnuts, and serve immediately.

In the mid-1980s, mussels were introduced to the mainland from Hong Kong and gradually became popular in high-end restaurants in the mainland. At that time, most of the clams used in the mainland were produced in the deep sea of North America and arrived by air, so they were expensive.

In fact, mussels are produced in China from Liaodong Peninsula to the coast of Hainan Island, but they are called purple in Shandong, squid in Jiangsu, and elephant trunk, mud bamboo shoots, sea bamboo shoots and so on in some places. Mytilus is the general name of Phyllanthus species in Mollusca. The shell is thin and brittle, and the two shells are small and usually equal. The front end of the shell has serrated teeth, and the back, abdomen and back end of the back shell have auxiliary shells. The water pipe is extremely developed, and the thick water pipe cannot be completely retracted into the shell. Some parts left outside the shell are as long as 10 cm, which looks like a trunk, hence the name.

In the past, because mussels were high-grade seafood, most chefs didn't know much about its material selection, feeding, primary processing and cooking technology, and mainland chefs often "stayed away from them". To this end, the author specially introduced some of his own experiences and understandings to communicate with you.

First, variety selection

At present, there are domestic mussels in the mainland market, and their prices are nearly 10 times cheaper than those of imported mussels, so it is particularly important to identify their varieties and quality when we buy mussels. At present, the varieties of mussels on the market are:

Guifei mussels are mainly produced in coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong. From the appearance, the shell of the noble mussel is oval, and the gray shell reveals a faint reddish color. When it is in the water, the mussel's mouth is slightly open and the straw is stretched out. The straw is white, crystal clear and looks very beautiful. Imperial concubine mussels are suitable for steaming.

Ivory mussels are produced in coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong. Ivory mussels are small, usually only 5 ~ 7 cm long. Meat is sweet, but the meat yield is not high. Because the price is not expensive, it is more popular with people. Ivory mussels are suitable for cooking by stir-frying, soy sauce frying and boiling.

American mussels with black shells and deep black shells; Canada produces white mussels. These two kinds of imported mussels are relatively large, with extremely full meat, white and crisp, and contain a lot of milk. Imported ivory mussels are expensive and usually only sold in high-end hotels.

When buying mussels, we should not only identify the varieties, but also pay attention to whether they are fresh, because fresh products will taste delicious when cooked. The way to buy is to look and touch. At first glance, the shell is open and can't be closed. It's a dead clam. Touch it with your hand When you touch a mussel with your hand, it is also a dead mussel that still looks "hard". In addition, if you pinch a little before the primary processing, the pulp will jump and shrink. After slicing, the meat is transparent and wavy, with fresh flavor, and should be alive. On the contrary, it is flat and fishy after slicing, that is, it is not alive.

Two. raise

Because mussels are expensive, it is particularly important to feed and keep them fresh. In some hotels, mussels are fed in salt water seafood pool. Although this method is available for guests to watch and choose, if one of them dies, it will spit out sewage with bacteria, which will affect the survival of other mussels and bring economic losses to the hotel. The author's experience in raising and feeding mussels is as follows: first, wrap the live mussels in paper, then wrap them in clean wet cloth, put them in the freezer with the temperature adjusted to -4℃ to 10℃, then take them out every day to absorb salt water for 5 minutes, and wrap them in the freezer as usual, which can maintain the life of mussels for 7 ~ 10 days.

Three. Primary processing

Elephant mussels mainly feed on fresh water pipes. In the initial processing, remove the shell and internal organs, take the water pipe and tear off the skin. In the past, many friends used blades to remove the skin of water pipes, but this method was wasteful. The author's experience is: after eviscerating the elephant mussel, put it in hot water at 80℃ for a while, you can take off the skin like a lady's stocking and take out the mussel meat to the maximum extent.

After the mussel meat is taken out, it should be cut into pieces or strips according to the requirements of different dishes, or put on a flower knife, and then put into a container and quickly frozen with ice cubes to make its meat more crisp and refreshing.

Some friends think that meat like mussels is delicious and cook with its internal organs. In fact, this is very dangerous. Food poisoning may occur because the viscera of mussels contain red tide toxins, which are absorbed by the human body. In addition, eating mussels is the most taboo for sand. There seems to be no good treatment for the sediment in mussel meat. In fact, when you pry open the mussel shell with a knife, you can cut a knife along the straw (that is, mussel meat) and then wash it, so there will be no sand in the mussel meat.

4. Diet method

Like mussels, the meat is tender and slightly sweet, tender and crisp, as delicious as oysters or overeating, without the general earthy smell, so like mussels, they can be eaten raw or cooked.

Raw mussels don't need to be blanched, so they can be sliced directly and eaten in seasoning dishes. However, it should be noted that it is best to choose raw mussels without pollution in the deep sea. Sauce like mussel, stir-fried like mussel with kale and soup? Like mussels and so on.

Its taste dishes can be Chinese, western and Japanese. Chinese dishes can borrow all kinds of cold dishes, such as ginger soy sauce, spicy soy sauce and garlic Chili sauce. Western-style dishes generally use lemon juice and chicken tail hot sauce; Japanese cuisine is the familiar horseradish sauce cuisine.

Cooked food is like mussels, and the common methods are blanching, scalding, frying, frying and soaking in oil. Representative dishes are chicken soup and mussels.

Step 5 heat and season

Hot dishes like mussels should be cooked quickly and the heat should not be too short, otherwise the mussel meat will become old and tough, and the taste will be poor; Seasoning should be light in color and taste to highlight the white and fresh characteristics of finished dishes.

Of course, I occasionally make mussels with heavy colors and thick mouths, which are also very distinctive. Below, I will introduce two Sichuan-style mussels created by the author.

Mussel in red soup

Ingredients: 1 mussel (about 1500g), crispy rice 200g, fresh millet pepper 30g, water-based bamboo mushroom cover 60g, water-based fungus 50g, loofah 1 root (about 250g), Pixian bean paste 50g, pickled pepper 50g, ear onion 50g, etc. Red sesame oil 1000g broth 30g fresh pepper oil 2000 peanut oil (about 150g dosage).

Method:

1. pry open the shell of the mussel with a knife, cut off the original strips of spherical viscera and skirt, cut 1 knife along the straw, wash it and put it in hot water at 80℃? Take a look, peel off the skin, clean it, slice it, and put it in an ice bowl for stability; Break the shell into small pieces by hand; Wash the loofah and cut it into diamond-shaped pieces; Cut the millet and pepper into rings.

2. Put the clean pot on the fire, inject peanut oil, and burn it to 60% to 70% heat. Put the broken rice crust in the oil pan, fry until golden and crisp, pour out the oil and put it in a large iron pan.

3. Put a clean pot on the fire, add red oil to heat it, add Pixian bean paste and pickled pepper sauce to stir fry until fragrant, then add ginger (beaten), garlic and onion to stir fry until fragrant, cook wine, add fermented grains, add broth, bring to a boil, remove residues with a fine-eyed colander, and then add refined salt, chicken essence and white pepper.

Features: red, white and green, sour and delicious, crisp and refreshing.

Production key:

1.？ When cooking clam meat, keep the water pot away from the fire, and the water temperature should not be too high, otherwise the clam meat will? Laoren

2. To cook this dish, two pots should be operated at the same time. One pot will stir-fry the pot, and the other pot will cook the same red soup as the mussel, so that the effect of the dish will be better.

3. Sichuan cooking mussels can change the flavor types according to the needs of guests, such as litchi flavor and salty flavor.

Mytilus gongbaoxiang

Ingredients: 1 mussel (about 1500g), 50g crisp cashew nuts, 25g fresh gold bars, 25g dried red peppers, 30g prickly ash granules, 2g shallots, 50g garlic slices, 20g refined salt, cooking wine, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, pepper, monosodium glutamate, chicken essence, water bean powder and sesame oil.

Method:

1. Tear open the shell with a knife, remove the internal organs and the original strips on the skirt, make a 1 knife along the straw, wash it, cut it in half, put a cross knife on it respectively, then replace it with rectangular blocks with widths of 4.5cm and 3cm, and put it in an ice bowl for stability; Take a bowl of refined salt, monosodium glutamate, chicken essence, cooking wine, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, pepper, water bean powder, etc. And add a proper amount of fresh soup to make juice.

2. Wash the pot with fire, add fresh soup and bring to a boil. When the fire cools down slightly, add the mussel pieces. Take it out quickly after a while, and then dry the surface moisture with a towel.

3. Wash the pot, re-ignite, add peanut oil, heat, add dried red pepper festival, fresh green pepper festival, red pepper festival, ginger slices, short onion festival and pepper granules, stir-fry until fragrant, cook the juice, and add? Good mussel pieces and crispy cashews, topped with sesame oil, quickly turned over and served.

Features: rich in color, crisp and fresh, sweet and sour and slightly spicy.

Production key:

1. Fresh soup with mussels? When making, we should grasp the time, immediately take out the pot, and don't scald it for a long time, otherwise the meat like mussels will get old and tough.

2. It is not advisable to use too much bean flour when adding juice, otherwise the taste will be affected by the thickening of mussel meat.

Multicolored mussel

Materials:

6 taels of elephant mussel meat (about 240g), 3 taels of Dutch beans (about120g), 2 taels of carrots (about 80g), 2 taels of salted egg yolk, 2 taels of straw mushroom (about 80g), 2 slices of ginger and a little minced garlic and scallion. Salt, Shao wine, ginger wine, pepper, sesame oil, crude oil, etc.

Method:

Slice mussel meat, add Shaoxing wine and refined salt, mix well, marinate slightly, and tenderize the oil with 70% oil temperature (or blanch it with boiling water until tender).

Tear the tendons off the peas. Peel and slice carrots and blanch them in boiling water. Straw mushroom has a cross-shaped knife edge on its head, which is first boiled with ginger wine and refined salt.

Steamed salted egg yolk and sliced.

Heat a wok, add oil, saute minced garlic, ginger slices and onion segments, add mussel slices and stir well, then add peas, carrots and straw mushrooms, sprinkle with pepper, add salted egg yolk slices, drizzle with sesame oil and stir well. Serve.

Features:

Rich color, fresh and crisp.