Awesome recipe for local mussels with roasted garlic, pickled cherry peppers, and chive butter from Steve Corry, owner of 555 in Portland! See Steve’s video here.

Bang’s Island Mussels
Five Fifty-Five, Portland

Roasted Garlic
Cut two bulbs of garlic in half (across the equator). Cover the garlic in oil (olive oil is preferable) and roast in the oven at 300° for approximately one and a half hours or until the garlic is spreadable. Then remove the garlic from the oven and let cool. Once cool, squeeze the garlic into a mortar and pestle and crush into a paste.

Cherry Peppers
¼ gallon water
¼ gallon vinegar
½ cup salt
¼ pound red cherry peppers
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 stalk of celery, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped

Sweat mirepoix in a small amount of oil until tender. Add water and vinegar and bring to a boil. Add salt. Return liquid to a boil. Remove liquid from heat and cover cherry peppers with hot liquid. Allow to pickle for 2 weeks.

Bang’s Island Mussels
2 Tablespoons diced orange peppers
1 Tablespoon pickled cherry peppers, seeded and roughly chopped
2 bulbs roasted garlic
3 pounds Bang’s Island mussels
1 cup dry white wine
4 ounces butter
2 Tablespoons chopped chives
Lemon juice to taste
Salt to taste

Heat a pan over high heat until it is smoking hot. Add a splash of oil, orange peppers, cherry peppers, and roasted garlic and sauté for 10 seconds. Add mussels and toss.

Add white wine and reduce by ½, then add butter, chives, lemon juice, and salt. Toss and then cover mussels and allow them to steam until the mussels open.

Once mussels have opened, remove the mussels from the pan, leaving sauce behind. Let sauce reduce until thickened and then pour over the mussels. Serve with crusty grilled bread.

Serves 6-8 as a starter.