The recipe of Black Sea Midye Natiur is simple but the final taste is very fresh, delicious, light and healthy.

The key of importance is freshness and quality of mussels as well as very careful cleaning of them before usage. To open mussels and cook the meat at the same time require short steaming in the closed pot with a small amount of liquid. In this recipe to get the best taste and flavour use aged in the barrel Chardonnay.

Selection of the mussels require only undamaged and fresh-smelling ones. All mussels should be tightly closed and any of them should be rejected if they do not shut when tapped.

Careful cleaning consists of three steps.

1) Scrape off any barnacles from the outsides of each mussel shell by the back side if the knife.

2) By the same small knife and against the thumb pull out and detach any hair-like beard fibers from the hinges of each mussel shell.

3) Scrub intensively each mussel from both shells sides under running cold water with a stiff brush in order to remove any sand and clean well mussels for cooking.

Keep carefully cleaned mussels in a big bowl with lightly salted cold water for about 2 hours or until ready to cook. If you keep muscles for longer than 2-3 hour pay attention the salted water should be cold and may need to add some ice in it.

Serves 3-4

Preparation time – 3 hours Cooking time – 6 minutes

1350 – 1800 g of live mussels, well cleaned (see above)

150-200 ml of barrel aged Chardonnay

2-3 celery stalks, thinly cut

2-3 fresh green onions stalks, thinly cut

2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2-3 tbsp olive oil

sea salt

25-30 g butter

4 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped for garnishing

Celery stalks, fresh green onions stalks and cloves of garlic should be finely chopped just before cooking.

Put olive oil in a big pan and fry chopped celery, green onions and garlic with a little salt in  it for a couple of minutes until soft. Pour a cup of Chardonnay into the mix and put in a boil. Add mussels and cover the pot with the lid. Shake the pot well and steam for 4 minutes until mussels open.

Add a little butter and finely chopped parsley. Mix mussels with a spoon in a pot, take away still closed ones. Remove the cooked mussels by the slotted spoon from the pot into deep plates. Take carefully remaining cooking liquid by a ladle and pour over the dish before serving. Using a ladle helps to avoid picking up sand residues from the bottom of the pan.

Black Sea Midye Natiur traditionally served warm immediately after cooking with freshly baked crispy bread which is usually dipped in liquid at the bottom of the plate..

Black Sea Midye Natiur can be served alone or with a side dish and it goes well with a glass of white wine.

Black Sea Cuisine is simple, tasty and inexpensive.