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Mussels saganaki recipe
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- Cuisine: Greek
- Prep Time: 40 min(s)
- Cook Time: 20 min(s)
- Serves 4
You cannot think of Greece and not have images of seafood and shots of ouzo by the seaside. Mainland Greece and its islands are fortunate to be surrounded by sea and an abundance of wonderful seafood. This includes mussels.
Saganaki (literary meaning frying pan) is a Greek word that also describes the cooking process whereby various dishes are fried in a frying pan and then flambéed with a spirit, such as ouzo or tsipouro.
A popular saganaki mezze is saganaki cheese, where normally kefalograviera, kasseri, kefalotiri, haloumi, or fetta cheese is used.
In Greek cookery we cook other ingredients this way, including seafood.
This is a wonderful mezze dish that I serve with ouzo and some crusty bread.
Substitute tinned tomatoes for fresh ones in the summer when they are in season.
Ingredients
1kg mussels, cleaned, debearded, washed1 tbsp tomato paste
½ cup warm water
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large garlic clove, thinly chopped
1 cup spring onions, finely chopped
Generous dash of ouzo
1 tin tomatoes
Salt and cracked pepper, to taste
1 tsp hot paprika
¼ cup finely chopped fresh continental parsley
¼ cup finely chopped fresh dill
100g fetta, crumbled, to garnish
Preparation
In a large skillet place two cups of water and bring to a boil. Add the mussels for a few minutes, until the shells open. Remove all the mussels as soon as they have opened and place in a bowl. Discard any that have not opened.Place the tomato paste in ½ cup of warm water and dissolve the paste.
In another skillet heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and spring onions. Cook them until they soften and the garlic turns golden brown.
Add the mussels and mix through. Add the ouzo and allow this to cook off for 1 minute.
Add the tomatoes, dissolved tomato paste, salt, pepper, hot paprika and combine well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes over a low simmer.
Remove from the heat, add the herbs and mix well.
Gently mix in the fetta just before serving. Serve hot.
©2012 Maria Benardis
If you enjoyed this Mussels saganaki recipe then browse more Greek recipes, seafood recipes, greek radio recipes, easy recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.
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