This is a very versatile dish that cooks in minutes, you can make it with green or red curry paste if you prefer, it can be served as a main dish or as a starter. It also works well with either noodles or spaghetti. I used fresh mussels for this but if they're not available there is a good alternative with cooked mussels available from most supermarkets. Sometimes this can even be preferable if you don't have a good fishmonger with a supply of fresh mussels, certainly takes out the work of cleaning them as well. The canned tuna in the picture adds a wonderful taste and texture to the sauce.
Ingredients.
Around 700 g to I kilo mussels
1 small can of tuna
1 can of coconut milk
A bunch of basil leaves, Thai if possible. (Waitrose stock them.)
A couple of mild chillies and a lime
1 Packet of My Thai Curry green or red curry paste.
If you’re using fresh mussels then they first have to be cleaned by rubbing handfuls of them together in running water. Tap any mussels that are partly open and discard those that do not close tightly. Pull any straggly hairy “beards” from the mussels. Rinse again in cold water.
If you are using cooked mussels then keep them in their container until ready to use. You don’t have to worry about these mussels being open because they have been cooked.
Put the tuna and the curry paste together in a bowl and mix together with a fork, don’t be tempted to use a food processor or chopper for this. I actually bashed mine about in a large mortar and pestle but if you don’t have one of these a bowl is perfectly fine.
Start by cooking your spaghetti or noodles because the rest of this will take less than 10 minutes.
Add the coconut milk to a large pan or wok if you have one and then add the tuna and curry paste mixture. As always, the quality of the coconut milk is paramount so if you're not familiar with what constitutes a good coconut milk I would suggest you start by reading this, Coconut Milk Summary.
Bring the contents of the pan to a simmer whilst stirring.
Add the mussels to the pan and heat through for no more than five minutes. Taste the sauce and adjust the sweetness with some lime juice if required.
Add the remaining ingredients stirring just a little so as not to totally submerge all those colourful basil leaves and chili slices.
Serve with spaghetti or noodles.
Enjoy!
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