[ ./recipes/mains/indian-butter-mussels.md ]
★ INDIAN · MAINS
Indian Butter Mussels.
SERVES
2
TOTAL
95m
ACTIVE
30m
LVL
MEDIUM
// SUMMARY
Butter chicken sauce, but with mussels — the recipe came from a chef who noticed the author eating his butter chicken and handed over the method. The sauce simmers for 45 minutes and gets sieved smooth, then mussels and thin-cut cabbage go in for barely a minute. Yogurt sauce, pistachios and crispy chilli oil on top.
// INGREDIENTS
| 4 | tbsp | olive oil |
| 1 | onion, chopped | |
| 2 | garlic cloves, minced | |
| 4 | tbsp | fresh ginger, peeled and minced |
| — 1½ tsp ground cumin | ||
| — 1½ tsp garam masala | ||
| — 1¼ tsp chilli powder | ||
| 1 | tsp | ground coriander |
| 0.25 | tsp | dried fenugreek leaves |
| 400 | g | canned peeled tomatoes |
| 1 | tbsp | granulated sugar |
| — 1¼ tsp sea salt, or to taste | ||
| — Freshly ground black pepper | ||
| 240 | ml | heavy cream |
| 100 | ml | Greek yogurt |
| 0.5 | tsp | garam masala |
| 1 | lemon, juice only | |
| 1 | pinch | fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper |
| 500 | g | mussels |
| 100 | g | savoy or pointed (sweetheart) cabbage, sliced into thin strips |
| 2 | tbsp | pistachios, finely chopped |
| 2 | tsp | crispy chilli oil |
// METHOD
- 01
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and gently sweat the onion, garlic, ginger, cumin, garam masala, chilli powder, coriander and fenugreek for a few minutes.
- 02
Add the tomatoes and sugar and season with salt and pepper.
- 03
Stir in the cream and let it cook gently for 45 minutes, until you have a thick, rich sauce.
- 04
Pour through a sieve set over a bowl. Silky is the goal — push it through properly.
- 05
Mix the yogurt, garam masala, lemon juice, salt and pepper together in a bowl. That's it.
- 06
Cook the mussels open in a covered pan over high heat, then remove the top half of the shells.
- 07
Add 400 g of the Indian butter sauce and the cabbage to the pan with the mussels and cook together 1 minute longer, stirring gently.
- 08
Finish with 3 tbsp of the yogurt sauce, the pistachios and the crispy chilli oil.
- 09
Serve the remaining yogurt sauce separately.
// NOTES
- — Sieve the sauce. Butter chicken sauce is defined by being completely smooth; the ginger and onion fibres are what you are removing.
- — The 45-minute simmer is where the sauce goes from thin and sharp to thick and rich. Low heat, occasional stir.
- — Cabbage goes in raw and gets barely a minute. It should still have bite — it is there for texture against a very rich sauce.
- — Sauce yield: you make more than the 400 g the dish uses. The rest keeps 4 days in the fridge or freezes well, and is genuinely good on chicken or paneer.
- — Dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi) are the signature note and hard to substitute. Crush them between your palms as they go in to release the aroma.
- — Crispy chilli oil means the Chinese-style jarred kind with fried chilli and garlic sediment. Spoon in some of the solids, not just the oil.
- — Timing: sauce and yogurt sauce ahead, mussels at the end. The last stage is about three minutes of work.
// VARIATIONS
- → Milder: halve the chilli powder and lean on the crispy chilli oil at the end, where the heat is controllable per plate.
- → With rice or naan: the sauce is generous enough to want something starchy. Flatbread is ideal for the shells.
- → Without cream: coconut cream works and pushes it towards a coastal South Indian flavour.
// SOURCE
- Sergio Herman — Mussels