Zeeuwse Mosselsalade

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mussel pot or heavy pot with tight lid, 5 liter or larger
• •Fine sieve or clean cloth for straining liquor
• •Wide serving platter

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the mussels

   Rinse the mussels in plenty of cold water and pull away any beards. Tap open mussels on the counter. If they close, they live and they cook; if they stay open, discard them. Throw away cracked shells too. Let the mussels sit in cold salted water for 30 minutes, then lift them out rather than pouring the grit back over them.

   Farmed mussels are often already well cleaned, but the short salt-water rest is still useful. Hurry this and you may taste sand where you wanted sea.
2. 2

   Cook them quickly

   Put the wine, leek, celery, onion, and bay leaf into a large pot and bring to a lively boil. Add the mussels, clamp on the lid, and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, shaking the pot once or twice, until the shells open. Do not drown them. A mussel carries its own sea.

3. 3

   Cool and shell

   Tip the mussels into a colander set over a bowl so you catch the cooking liquor. Discard any shells that stayed closed. When cool enough to handle, remove the mussels from their shells and chill them for 30 minutes. Strain the liquor through a fine sieve or clean cloth and save a few spoonfuls for the dressing.

4. 4

   Make the dressing

   Whisk the mayonnaise, yogurt or crème fraîche, mustard, vinegar, 2 tablespoons of cooled mussel liquor, lemon zest, lemon juice, dill, parsley, and white pepper. Taste before salting. The mussel liquor, shrimp, and smoked fish have all brought salt to the table already, and they are not shy guests.

5. 5

   Fold the seafood

   Fold the chilled mussels, Hollandse garnalen, smoked fish, and cucumber through half the dressing. Use a broad spoon and a light hand; the shrimp are small and the smoked fish should stay in flakes, not collapse into paste.

6. 6

   Dress and serve

   Toss the slamelange with just enough of the remaining dressing to gloss the leaves, then arrange it on a wide platter. Spoon the seafood over the leaves and serve cold, with brown bread and butter. I prefer to keep it a bit more relaxed, in the Dutch way: platter in the middle, glasses already poured, and no one counting the shrimp.

Chef Tips

• •Buy mussels from a fishmonger with good turnover and cook them the day you buy them. They should smell clean and tidal, never sour or heavy.
• •The tide sets the menu, and so does the calendar. Dutch mussels are best from summer into spring, with the first Zeeland season beginning around July; outside that window, ask your fishmonger what is actually good rather than obeying an old rhyme.
• •Hollandse garnalen, tiny Dutch brown shrimp, are worth seeking out. If you can't find them, use small cooked cold-water shrimp, not large sweet prawns, which change the whole scale of the salad.
• •Smoked eel is traditional in some Dutch cold seafood plates, but good eel is now a sustainability question. Smoked mackerel or trout gives the needed smoke without asking the cook to ignore the sea's condition.
• •Serve this very cold but not icy. Ten minutes out of the refrigerator lets the dressing loosen and the mussel sweetness come back.

Advance Preparation

• •The mussels can be cooked, shelled, and chilled up to 24 hours ahead; keep them covered in the refrigerator with a spoonful of strained cooking liquor.
• •The dressing can be made up to 1 day ahead, but fold it through the seafood no more than 2 hours before serving so the salad stays clean and fresh.
• •Do not store leftover mussel salad more than 1 day, and keep it refrigerated.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 300g)