Spicy Mussels with Ginger

Quick note: Do not clean the mussels or even take them out of the fridge until you've prepped everything else. They are living creatures—treat them gently and with respect. Mussels get a pan-Asian treatment—and a bit of heat.

Course seafood

Cuisine Asian-inspired

Servings 2 as a main course, 4 to 5 as a starter

Ingredients

2 tablespoons canola or other neutral-tasting oil
2 Serrano peppers, seeded (or not) and chopped (see Kitchen Notes)
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup sake or shaoxing cooking wine, or dry white wine or dry vermouth
2 whole star anise
2 pounds mussels,scrubbed
a baguette for sopping up the delicious cooking liquid

Instructions

Heat the oil in a large, lidded skillet or sauté pan over medium flame. Add the peppers and sauté, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften, 2 minutes or so. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring frequently, for about 1 minute. Add the soy sauce, sake and star anise and stir to combine.
When the liquid begins to bubble, add the mussels. Cover with a lid and cook until mussels open, about 4 to 5 minutes. They are now cooked.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer mussels to a bowl to stop cooking (otherwise, they will become tough). Divide among shallow bowls and spoon the pepper/ginger cooking liquid over them.
Serve with pieces of baguette for sopping up the delicious, spicy liquid. (There will be lots of liquid, and it will be thin—the mussels release the liquid they're holding in their shells when you cook them. With some recipes, notably European ones, you'll reduce the liquid or thicken it with corn starch—no need to do this here.)

Kitchen Notes

Dial the heat up or down. When prepping the peppers, I removed the seeds and ribs from one pepper (that's where the heat is), but left them in the second pepper as I chopped it up. The result was nicely spicy for us. For some friends, I know it would have been too hot—for others, it would have barely registered. Let your own heat tolerance guide how much of the seed and ribs you remove or leave in. But in addition to heat, the peppers add a nice flavor note, so don't forgo them.