Spring Comes to Catbird Cottage
Edible contributor Melina Hammer has a brand new seasonal cookbook, A Year at Catbird Cottage, full of everything you love about local seasonal food!
I was brought under the wing of two renowned food experts, Jon Rowley and Betty Fussell, in my earliest days as a food photographer. These legends gave me a jump-start to become more discerning, sharing with me incredible quality ingredients, among them many heirloom foods. Jon taught me how to identify the freshest, plumpest oysters, mussels, and wild fish (ruining me for anything not superlative) along with the best peaches I’ve ever had. Betty shared how elemental eating could be undeniably sumptuous and spoke about everything with a riveting zeal. Quality foods at peak ripeness, prepared with love, make for the best eating around. This mussels dish is one Jon would have loved and is a dish I first made for Betty in her kitchen, eaten on her patio in the Santa Barbara sunshine.
Ingredients
SERVINGS: 2 Serving(s)
- 3 to 5 medium shallots, cut into thin rings
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for sautéing
- 3 to 5 strips lemon peel (shave away any white pith)
- 2 stalks thinly sliced celery and leaves
- 9 small French breakfast or Easter egg radishes, cut in half lengthwise
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup dry white wine, such as Grüner Veltliner, White Bordeaux, or Vinho Verde
- ½ cup water
- 15 to 20 mussels (larger ones are better), beards removed and scrubbed
TOPPINGS (ANY ONE OR A MIX)
- 1 handful borage flowers or fresh chervil
- 3 to 5 pea tendrils
- ¼ cup fresh parsley leaves, torn
Preparation
Using a cast-iron pan with a fitted lid, sauté the shallots with 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until beginning to brown, 7 to 9 minutes. Add the lemon peel halfway through and stir occasionally.
Add the celery with half its leaves, the radishes, and half of the butter. Season with salt and pepper. Stir to incorporate as the butter foams. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until radishes begin to soften, then add the wine. Turn the radishes, stirring occasionally as the mixture bubbles. After 2 minutes, add the water.
When the mixture comes to a boil again, add the remaining butter and stir to incorporate. Add the mussels and cover with the pan lid.
Cook for 6 minutes or until their shells open. Stir in the remaining celery leaves, then serve in shallow bowls, being sure to include the softened lemon peels amidst the broth and veggies.
Top with the borage flowers, pea tendrils, or parsley (any one or a mix) and eat at once, slurping the broth and softened peels, plucking briny-sweet mussels from their shells, feasting on spring.
About this recipe
Reprinted with permission from A Year at Catbird Cottage: Recipes for a Nourished Life. Copyright © 2022 by Melina Hammer. Photography Copyright © 2022 by Melina Hammer. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
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