A traditional favorite in the South of France, Mussels Provencal are easy to prepare, and cook in no time. The secret to the tasty broth is a fine white wine. Be sure not to over cook them!
I love preparing mussels. As a matter of fact we're going to do Mussels Provencal. We're going to put some tomatoes and garlic in there. When you just see how easy it is to do - the only way to do it is the way I'm going to show you to do it. The only way to cook a mussel is to steam one. Put a little extra virgin olive oil in there and we're going to put in a bit of onion and we're going to sweat the onion. Okay? While the onion is sweating, let's talk a little bit about mussels.
Now, you can see this mussels open, my dear. Now does that mean that this mussel is dead? No it doesn't. It means that she is sleeping. She or he, I don't know. She's sleeping with her mouth open. We're going to wake her up. (Banging them together) Wake up!! Look, look, look what happen. I hope you can see it. Wake up - look she's closing. Like leave me alone, I've got to go back to sleep. See the mussel is closed. That's what happen. When they're relaxed, they kinda open up a little. They sleep with their mouth open. And the minute you make some noise, BOOM, they close right away because they are alive. You want them to be alive. So you check around and if you see an open one, wake her up.
