Sometimes it seems to me that all the uniqueness of Odessa, all this amazing and beautiful architecture, all these streets blown through, flying from the sea to people, plane trees, acacias, and hot steppe air. No this would have happened without food prepared right away, using all what had been fished, gathered or bought on the Privoz (local market).
Once someone, kinda smart, kinda lazy raked some mussels, threw them on a burning sheet – and provided a good income to Odessa restaurateurs a couple of centuries in advance, and that way Odessa residents created another gastronomic legend called “there are no mussels like these but in Odessa”.
Raking mussels is easy, simple and requires either strong nails and a knife, or a special gadget such as “dredge”, which in Odessa used to be in every respectable house where people were fond of fishing, that is, almost everyone.
To buy mussels, you go to the Privoz or ferry service, where the diver Volodya, has been selling mussel for twenty years now. Not peeled, put in a jar, in its natural shell. Huge, blackish blue and shiny like tree resin that we chewed in childhood instead of chewing gum. Take a bucket right away, no less. It will be so delicious that you will not share your meal with neighboring cats.
And what is the most important in the mussel? It should be closed without the slightest hint of airing. Otherwise, whatever you cook, you have every chance to visit isolation hospital. A whole mussel should be washed from the sand and a byssus must be pulled out of it – some of those sea creatures believe that having chewed some seaweed, they would become less attractive to mussel hunters, but this is not so.
It is necessary to wash the mussel thoroughly and preferably to taste with a glass of chilled white wine, wearing underwear or a bathing suit and with a burned back. You can do without this beach set, but you won’t enjoy as you should to. When you washed them badly, you can simply leave them in a sink with cold water and meanwhile chop the onion, half or even the whole peeled garlic head. The smaller the better. A few large sweet tomatoes, preferably without skin. In large pieces. A couple of sweet peppers cut julienne.
In a cauldron (well, if you do not have a cauldron – take a deep frying pan, but then anyway its better to buy a cauldron – if you want to know where, ask me) pour sunflower oil to cover the pan bottom . When it heats up – throw the onions with garlic, wait until it all becomes transparent and then add the chopped tomatoes and peppers. In 5-7 minutes, as the smell spreads the kitchen, and when the broth starts gurgling – throw your clean mussels there, pour almost a whole bottle of white wine there (200 grams you have already drunk while washing the mussels, haven’t you?). Squeeze a couple of lemons, you can simply cut each in halves and squeeze with your hands. Cover the pan and wait for the mussels to open. In the meanwhile, you can chop a bunch of parsley and get a piece of brinsen cheese from the refrigerator. As the the mussels open – remove the lid – add finely chopped parsley into the cauldron and blend the cheese immediately. Close the lid and you can turn off the fire. After a couple of minutes, the cheese melts on hot mussels a little, but not completely. And this is important, got it? This brinsen cheese (thawed, but not melted) perks up the mussels.
Then everything is simple. You open the second bottle of chilled white, take a piece of bread – and eat, eat, eat the mussel with your hands, and then shamelessly soak the most delicious with bread, and even if you suddenly happened to eat mussels in a restaurant, it is more than decent and pleases the cook. Enjoy your meal. As you can try it only in Odessa.
Greek mussels with Odessa twist
