Must try in New Zealand

Steamed Green-Lipped Mussels in Wine and Garlic.

Name: Steamed Green-Lipped Mussels in Wine and Garlic
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 27 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: New Zealand
Ingredients: 2 kg live green-lipped mussels, scrubbed and bearded; 40 g butter; 2 shallots, finely chopped; 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced; 250 ml dry white wine, preferably sauvignon blanc; 100 ml cream; ½ cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped; 1 lemon, half juiced and half cut in wedges; to taste freshly ground black pepper

· say it: green-lipped MUSS-uhls

Green-lipped mussels are the enormous, jade-rimmed mussels farmed on ropes in the Marlborough Sounds, and they take about eight minutes to cook from cold pot to table. Wine, garlic, shallot and a knob of butter go in first; the mussels go on top, the lid goes on, and the shells crack open into a broth that has picked up all their salty liquor. A splash of cream rounds it, parsley and lemon lift it, and the whole thing is eaten with fingers, using an empty shell as tongs. The meat is meatier and milder than a European blue mussel — closer to a scallop in texture — and it wants sauce it can soak up rather than sauce that fights it.

Jump to the recipe

Read the story

Steamed Green-Lipped Mussels in Wine and Garlic

Gate: New ZealandMarlborough Sounds and Coromandel
Prep: 15 min
Cook: 12 min
Total time: 27 min
Serves: 4
Status: Easy
Nutrition / serving · estimated: Calories 390 kcal; Protein 32 g; Carbs 12 g; Fat 20 g; Fiber 1 g; Sodium 780 mg

Why this recipe works.

Timed for the size of green-lipped mussels, which cook faster than they look like they should.
Aromatics are softened first so the broth tastes of sweet garlic and shallot, not raw alcohol.
Honest about cleaning and discarding — the safety rules are stated plainly rather than glossed over.
Fifteen minutes start to finish, in one pot, with bread doing all the plating work.

Ingredients.

9 items

Servings

Mussels

2 kg live green-lipped mussels, scrubbed and bearded

To finish

½ cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 lemon, half juiced and half cut in wedges
to taste freshly ground black pepper

Equipment

Wide heavy pot with a tight lid
Stiff brush for scrubbing
Fine sieve

Instructions.

Clean and check the mussels
Scrub 2 kg of mussels under cold running water and pull each beard firmly towards the hinge. Tap any open shells on the bench — keep the ones that close within a few seconds and throw out the ones that do not.
Soften the aromatics
Melt the butter in a wide pot over medium heat and cook the shallot and garlic for 3–4 minutes, stirring, until translucent and sweet-smelling. Do not let the garlic take any colour or it will turn bitter in the broth.
Reduce the wine
Pour in the wine, turn the heat up and let it bubble hard for 2 minutes, until the sharp alcohol smell has burned off and the liquid smells rounded and fruity.
Steam the mussels open
Tip in the mussels, clamp on the lid and steam over high heat for 5–6 minutes, shaking the pot once, until most shells have gaped open and the broth below is cloudy and smells of the sea.
Tip Peek once at four minutes. Green-lipped mussels toughen fast, and it is better to pull them early than late.
Finish the broth
Lift the mussels into a warm serving bowl with tongs, discarding any that stayed shut. Stir the cream and lemon juice into the pot juices and let them bubble for a minute until the broth is glossy and just coats a spoon.
Pour over and serve
Pour the broth over the mussels, holding back the last spoonful in case any grit settled. Shower with parsley and black pepper and take it to the table with lemon wedges and bread, while the shells are still steaming.

Tips from our kitchen.

Buy mussels that are closed, or that close when you tap them sharply on the bench. Any that stay open after tapping go in the bin.
Pull the beard towards the hinge, not away from it, or you tear the meat out with it.
Use a pot wide enough that the mussels sit no more than three deep. Piled high, the bottom layer overcooks before the top opens.
Take them off the heat the moment most shells are open. The last few stragglers will open in the residual steam.
Discard any mussel that stays firmly shut after cooking — do not prise it open to check.
Save the leftover broth. Strained through a sieve it makes an outstanding base for a seafood chowder or a risotto the next day.

Substitutions.

Green-lipped mussels → Blue mussels or clams: Blue mussels are much smaller, so cut the steaming time to about 4 minutes and increase the count per person.
Dry white wine → Fish or vegetable stock with an extra squeeze of lemon: You lose some acidity and depth, but the mussels release plenty of their own liquor to carry the broth.
Cream → A tablespoon of cold butter whisked in off the heat: Lighter and arguably better if the mussels are very fresh — it gloss the broth without muting the sea flavour.

Variations.

Mussel fritters: The Coromandel and West Coast classic: chopped mussel meat folded into a thick batter and fried in butter, served with lemon and pepper.
Chilli, ginger and coriander: Swap the wine and cream for coconut milk, ginger and green chilli — a common local reworking that suits the mild, meaty green-lipped mussel well.
Grilled on the half shell: Steam open, discard the top shell, spoon over garlic butter and breadcrumbs, and flash under a hot grill until browned.

Storage & reheating.

Live mussels keep 1–2 days in the fridge in an open bowl covered with a damp cloth — never sealed in a bag or in water, both of which suffocate them. Cooked mussels should be eaten the day they are made; picked out of their shells and kept in their strained broth they will hold overnight and can be stirred into pasta or chowder, but do not reheat them in the shell, which turns the meat to rubber. Never freeze them raw in the shell.

Serve with

A crusty loaf for the broth, cold Marlborough sauvignon blanc, and an empty half-shell to use as tongs.

The story behind Steamed Green-Lipped Mussels in Wine and Garlic.

Perna canaliculus, the green-lipped mussel, lives only around New Zealand. Māori have gathered kuku or kūtai from the rocks for centuries, and shell middens up and down both coasts record how central they were to coastal diets. Commercial wild dredging in the Hauraki Gulf collapsed through overfishing by the late 1960s, and what replaced it turned into one of the country's quieter industrial successes: rope-grown aquaculture in the Marlborough Sounds, where spat collected largely from Ninety Mile Beach is seeded onto longlines and grown suspended in clean, cold water for around eighteen months.

That farming method is why the mussels are so consistent. They never sit in sand, so they arrive almost grit-free, and they grow far larger than wild European mussels — a good one fills a tablespoon. Marlborough now supplies most of the world's green-lipped mussels, and a second industry grew up alongside the food one, selling mussel powder as a joint supplement, which is how most people outside New Zealand first hear the name.

At home the treatment is deliberately plain. Mussel fritters are the West Coast and Coromandel classic, smoked mussels turn up in every fish shop, and steamed pots of them with wine and garlic are standard summer eating in the Sounds, where you can sometimes buy them off the boat the morning they are pulled. The one rule that gets repeated everywhere is not to overcook them: a green-lipped mussel goes from plump to rubbery in about ninety seconds, and the difference between a very good pot and a disappointing one is usually just heat and timing.

Questions, answered.

How do I know if a mussel is safe to eat?

Before cooking, tap any open mussel on the bench — a live one closes within a few seconds, and one that stays open should be thrown away. After cooking, the rule reverses: a mussel that has stayed firmly shut did not cook properly and should be discarded rather than forced open.

What is different about green-lipped mussels?

They are a species found only in New Zealand, farmed on suspended ropes rather than dredged, and they grow much larger than European blue mussels with a distinctive green edge to the shell. The meat is meatier, milder and sweeter, and because they never touch the seabed they are almost free of grit.

Why did my mussels turn out rubbery?

They were cooked too long. A green-lipped mussel is done within a minute of its shell opening, and every extra minute in the pot shrinks and toughens the meat. Take the pot off the heat when most shells have opened and let the residual steam finish the rest.

Do I have to use wine?

No. The mussels release a lot of salty liquor of their own, so a cup of fish stock or even water with a good squeeze of lemon gives you a working broth. Wine mainly adds acidity and a bit of depth, which lemon can partly replace.

Can I cook them ahead for a party?

Not really in the shell. What works is steaming them open in advance, picking the meat out, straining and chilling the broth, then reheating the broth and dropping the meat in for thirty seconds at the last moment. Reheating whole mussels in their shells always overcooks them.

All recipes →