zeeuswe mosselen

Before I moved to Leiden, I had this fantasy of living on mussels for a few months. I've been dying to have the “zeeuswe mosselen” from Yerseke in Zeeland. They are the major exporters of farmed mussels to the rest of Europe. Zeeland is just a bit South and West of Leiden on the South side of a bay of the North Sea. New Zealand was so named for the province by Dutch cartographers.

I have only cooked frozen mussels in the US. I didn't realize then that they were cooked. They opened when I cooked them so I assumed they were not cooked yet but I'm guessing that they are pasturized or at least par-steamed. Mussels are never to be frozen alive and should only be cooked alive. This, of course, meant that they were thoroughly cleaned before cooking. I did a little research before I cooked them learned that the orange flesh was an indicator that they were female mussels and the paler colored mussels were male or young females. Also I knew that if they didn't close their shells with a tap, that they were likely dead. Also any that don't open up after cooking are likely dead and should also be discarded. I also learned that mussels shouldn't be soaked in tap water as they are seawater creatures, the tap water would kill them. Armed with all of this new knowledge, I was excited to prepare the 2 kilos of mussels I bought at the market. I had figured they would be fresh and especially tasty. I thought it would only take 30 minutes from opening the vacuum seal to plate. I didn't anticipate that the exterior of their shells would be full of sand and in need of a scrub. They were debearded.

I was so excited when I broke the vacuum seal of the container of mussels and could smell the sea just kilometers away from my kitchen. My mouth was already watering. I sorted out the mussels by level of cleaning necessary. I put the ones that needed a light rinse in one container and those that weren't closing in another container. This was taking longer than 30 minutes to the table. I used a brush and scrubbed the shells. I didn't realize I was doing this but I let a container of mussels fill up with tap water. I scrubbed less sandy shelled mussels, I was soaking the mussels still in the container in the sink. I got through a little over one kilo when I realized I still had the ones on top of which I was working. I didn't realize it but now most of those in the sink had opened their shells. I tapped on their shells and they wouldn't close. I drowned them. I drained the water and let them sit for a bit longer and retested them with the tapping, still didn't close. I continued with the rest that were less soiled. I started to hear this faint clicking sound. I looked at the container and I saw that a few of the mussels seemed to be slowly opening and closing. Were they trying to communicate? "No," I told myself, "they can't communicate!" I started to think about them as living organisms...then I thought about them getting steamed alive...until they just give up and open their shells as a muscle contraction...I tried to stop thinking about this but the clicking didn't stop. It's not as if they can see me, I told myself. Then I thought about the existance of a being an organism trapped in a shell without the ability to see. I had to remind myself that they only existed to be eaten. They were farmed mussels. I can't compare my existance to theirs, they are much simpler lifeforms without a central nervous system. Let's just hope I'm not reincarnated as a mussel.

I started to steam the mussels that were already ready to be steamed with shallots and garlic lightly cooked in butter and set the timer. I finished cleaning the rest and set them in another smaller pot and set them to cook just as I was shutting off the first batch. The smell was amazing as I opened the lid. It took me an additional hour beyond the anticipated 30 minutes. They really were a lot of work. I did have quite a few of them and I froze a good sized serving of them that really would be very tasty on some fresh pasta. They really were very delicious. Lekker!