Raw mussels for appetizer, lunch or dinner. "Moules Parquées"
Get 1 kg North Atlantic mussels (Mytilus edulis or Blue mussel), that amounts to 36 to 48 mussels. Put them in a small bucket, add tap water until submerged, add a tablespoon of salt (they *are* salt water denizens) and a generous squirt of milk. Supposedly milk is an excellent nutrient for mussels and will make them eat and swell a little. Put them and leave them undisturbed in the fridge overnight, so they can open slightly, take in salt water + diluted milk and lose any trapped stale air.
2 - 3 hours before consuming, gently take the bucket from the fridge. Remove any mussels that float (presumably those are dead).
Take 3 or 4 ceramic or stainless steel mussel plates, each with indentations for 12 mussels. Because my mussel plates were already packed, pending our move, I used regular plates covered with plastic blister foil to keep the mussels from rolling on their side.
Open the shells with a specially adapted knife to avoid cutting your thumb. Separate the shell halves, completely detach the mussel, put the top shell half back and arrange 10 to 12 on a plate. The freshly opened mussels may have a glassy aspect, but don't worry, half an hour later, because of exposure to fresh air, they will have regained an ivory, yellowish or orangey appetizing colour. Then put the stacked plates back in the fridge until you're ready to eat, but wait for at least half an hour.
The mussels can be served with or without crispy bread, with or without white Wine, Vodka, Scotch, Uisge Baugh, Bokma or Akvavit.
Seasoning of the mussels:
My wife prefers adding a little salt, some white pepper (from the handmill) and a dash of hand-squeezed lemon.
I prefer my cold onion sauce.
Important note! When the acid hits the mussel, the mussel's beard should wriggle and contract a bit, proving that the mussel is not spoiled and edible.
The medium sized chicken egg is only there for size comparison. It has nothing further to do, unless it's hard boiled and you intend to eat it. The short knife is my own customized mussel opening knife.
Cold onion sauce:
Finely grate a white or purple (only for colour) medium sized onion. Add some finely cut chive (use hand scissors), add a stacked teaspoon of sugar (to counteract the slight bitterness of the grated onion), add freshly squeezed juice of a half lemon or lime (or vinegar, Ã la rigueur), add salt, celery-flavoured salt and pepper to taste. Mix well (whether stirred or shaken makes no difference).
The coffee spoon is just to illustrate the scale.
Mussel opening knife (see top picture):
I took an ordinary small kitchen knife and ground it down to a more mussel-adapted shape. Its cutting edge is NOT sharp, but dull enough not to cut my thumb's skin. To detach a mussel from its shell, you don't need to cut anything, just scrape the knife in some spots between mussel and inner shell surface.
"YUMMY!" just now exclaimed my wife and she smothered me with ki ... she started devouring her plate of mussels.