Curried Mussels

Finally! I was able to buy some fresh, nicely sized mussels! I was looking for fresh mussels last week when I wanted to try out an interesting French recipe. Since I was not able to find some mussels last week, I substituted with Pacific clams and the dish turned out very good! You may want to try the recipe here. It is truly highly recommended. :)

Of course my first impulse is to cook these mussels the way I cooked the Pacific clams. It was delicious! But that was just last week. I would not want to immediately repeat the same recipe on my dinner table and on this blog. :) So, I tried to make this curried mussels dish that I was able to taste (and hopefully recreate) from a restaurant.

Mussels are known to be "poor man's oysters." I am not surprised because mussels are indeed a lot, lot cheaper than oysters, and even cheaper than clams. But their meat is very tasty. I am not sure if I am simply biased, but I prefer the ones with the orange meat rather than the cream meat. Maybe I am simply attracted by the bright orange hue, that is why I "think" they are more delicious than the cream-colored meat. Later on, I learned that the orange meat are females and the cream colored ones are males. So, maybe the orange meat are indeed more tasty. Is it not that the female crabs are tastier than the male crabs as well?


1 kilo live mussels, shells brushed
5 slices fresh ginger
5 T minced garlic
1 onion, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
100 gms lean ground pork
3 -4 pcs jalapeno peppers or green peppers (siling haba)
1/2 C coconut milk
3 T curry powder
1 T sugar
salt and pepper to taste


1. Heat up some oil in a wok or cooking pan. Add in the ginger and saute until fragrant. Add in the onions and garlic. Saute until fragrant but not burnt. Add in the tomatoes. Let simmer for a while until softened.

2. Add in the ground pork. Let cook until meat changes color and is done, stirring once in a while.

3. Add in the mussels, coconut milk, curry powder, jalapeno peppers, and curry powder. Let boil and cook until mussels open. Stirring once in a while. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. Discard mussels that did not open.


Even if mussels are not expensive, they are good food. They are quite tasty and delicious and they are full of good nutrition. They are low in fat and high in protein. They are also rich in omega 3 fatty acids. It is rich in iron, manganese, phosphorous, selenium, zinc and vitamins C and B12.



Sharing this curried mussels dish with Kitchen of Love Food event hosted by Chris of Mele Cotte. This event is featuring aphrodisiacs food and dishes as a way of celebrating this most romantic time of the year. Mussels, which are high in minerals such as zinc, and phosphorus are considered aprohodisiac food. Check out her blog in a few days to see the round-up of dishes we will serve our special someone on valentine's day.