Chinese mussel recipe

[musselhead]

Good morning,

 

I´m Christoph and I live in Austria. I love to cook and eat and run a german foodblog (voellereitag.blogspot.co.at).

We have a chinese Restaurant about 100km away from home, and they offer chinese mussels in a hot sauce.

I love this dish and would like to cook it at home.

 

Unfortunately they won´t tell me which ingredients they use.

 

So maybe you can help me. I´m sure that there are onions and hot peppers in it, but I can´t taste the traditional asian Sauces like soy or hoisin or oyster sauce in there.

They gave me a hint, that they use Wine and a Little soy Sauce.

 

Maybe this dish is common in Asia and somebody could help me.

I added a Picture, so I would be thankful if somebody could help me!

 

Thanks in advance and sorry for my bad englisch,
Christoph

 

[abcdefg]

15 hours ago, musselhead said:

Maybe this dish is common in Asia and somebody could help me.

 

Christoph -- I've had those in Chinese restaurants in the US, but have not come across them in China. It's possible they are more popular in a part of China that is near the seashore (I live in the southwest, in the interior -- Kunming, Yunnan.)

 

Later today I'll take a look on the Chinese internet and see if I can find something similar that might be of help to you.

[abcdefg]

Though it probably isn't exactly like the dish you like so much in that one particular restaurant, here is one I found on-line that looks good and has the same basic flavors which you describe: http://home.meishichina.com/recipe-67443.html

 

Here is a quick and rough "working translation": 

 

Ingredients: mussels -- 500 grams; fresh garlic shoots -- several; fresh (not dried) red hot peppers -- several; fresh ginger -- small amount; salt, light soy sauce, oil, cooking wine.

 

Method:

1. Soak the fresh mussels in salted water for an hour. Then drop them in boiling water and cook barely until they open. (Don't overcook them.) Plunge them in cold water to stop the cooking rapidly. Drain and set them aside.

2. Cut the garlic shoots, ginger and peppers into thin slivers.

3. Add oil to a hot wok and swirl it around to coat.

4. Add the slivered ginger to the wok and stir it fast until the aroma is released.

5. Put in the mussels and cook them fast, turning them over with your wok tool or spatula for 3 or 4 minutes. As you do this, add the cooking wine so that the mussels will lose their "fishy" smell.

6. Add the garlic shoots and hot peppers, salt and soy sauce, continually stirring and flipping for a few more seconds.

7. They are done; transfer them to a plate.

 

(My added footnotes: Use very little soy sauce. The oil can be corn oil or similar. The kind of cooking wine used here has a mild flavor, it is called "Shaoxing Chinese yellow cooking wine." Dry sherry can be substituted. Some other similar recipes call for adding fresh cilantro as part of the last step.)

 

I have not made this exact recipe, but have made something similar. My experience was that the only difficult part was judging the proper cooking time for the mussels. That took some practice.

 

Good luck with it!

 

[Mati1]

musselhead, I think you should update your profile and add your location.

[musselhead]

Great! Thank you so much @abcdefg for the translation!

 

I also found a stir fry recipe, that looks great: http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/stir-fried-mussels-with-chili-garlic-and-basil-258634#activity-feed

I think this is pretty close, altough i don´t remeber a coriander taste in it.

I will try both recipes in near future and let you know!

 

Hallo @Mati1 , werd ich bei Zeiten machen! Grüße aus Gmunden

[abcdefg]

That looks like a good recipe you found, @musselhead. Chinese almost always use coriander leaf instead of the dried seeds. The taste is fresh, but less strong.

 

Please do let us know how it works out.