UPDATE: This recipe is the winner of the Royal Foodie Joust contest.

Mussels, Mushrooms, Orange peels and Sparkling red grape juice thrown into the same pan…

Today, 12 noon is the deadline for the Royal Foodie Joust and and here I am rushing for it. The ingredients for this month are Mushroom, Orange and Wine (or non-alcoholic sparkling wine). When I read about the ingredients, I had no idea and honestly quite confused about how to combine these to make an interesting dish. If I had to make dishes with these ingredients separately, there wouldn’t be any scarcity for the recipes. I would have come up with many recipes. As usual, I stood still with my refrigerator open and looked inside with my eyes wide open and of course thinking about how to throw these into the same pot. When I saw the Mussels getting ready to come out of the freezer, I first grabbed that and the other ingredients. After that I don’t know what happened in my kitchen and here is what was ready on the platter for dinner.

The combination of Mussels, Mushrooms, orange and sparkling wine did work and this was the dish, which got finished first for dinner.

Mussel Mushroom in Sparkling Red Grape Juice:

Ingredients:

  • Mussels, with the shells, cleaned thoroughly-12 no’s

  • Button Mushrooms halved- 1/2 cup
  • Onion, minced-1/2 onion
  • Garlic minced-1tsp
  • Tomato paste-2 tbsp
  • Sparkling red grape juice- 1/2 cup
  • Orange peel, cut wide without the white part- 3 wide slices.
  • Olive oil- 1-2 tbsp
  • Salt- to taste
  • Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
  • Parsley chopped or cilantro chopped, for garnish- 1 handful

Preparation:

  • Clean the shell of the mussels with a brush or paper towel and pick only the good ones.
  • Heat a wide non-stick pan, when it gets hot, add olive oil.
  • Add the onions, garlic and saute until translucent.
  • Add the mushrooms and saute until mushrooms are tender.

  • Add salt and ground pepper and give it a stir.
  • Now, add the tomato paste and combine everything well.
  • Add the sparkling grape juice  and the orange peels to the veggies.
  • When it starts to boil, add the cleaned mussels and close the pan with its lid.
  • Let the mussels simmer for about 3 minutes.

  • Transfer the mussels to a serving bowl, ladle the sauce over the mussels and garnish with Parsley or Cilantro.
  • Enjoy the mussel, mushroom, sparkling red grape juice together with a hint of orange.

Tips:

  • You could even use dry white wine instead of sparkling grape juice.