Dec 13
Turkish Fried Mussels With 'Tarator' Sauce
Posted by Taylor Shellfish
Ingredients
- ¾ cup plain yogurt
- ½ cup crumbled white bread (crust removed)
- 6 walnut halves (crushed)
- 1 clove garlic (crushed)
- 2 tsp. lemon juice
- ½ tsp. salt
- 36-40 mussels (shelled and cleaned)
- ¾ cup flour
- ¾ cup club soda
- 1 egg yolk
- Oil for frying
- ½ tsp. salt
- 3 ½ tsp. baking soda
- 4 ¼ cups water
Steps to Make It
- First, prepare the tarator dipping sauce by combing the yogurt, bread crumbs, crushed walnuts, garlic, lemon juice and salt in a chopper or food processor. Set the sauce aside to set.
- Next, prepare the mussels. Make sure the mussels have no remaining pieces of beard or debris. Rinse them under very cold water and pat them dry with paper towels.
- Dip each mussel in flour and shake off the excess.
- Put three floured mussels on each bamboo skewer leaving space at one end for holding.
- In a deep skillet or saucepan add the oil and heat it for frying.
- While the oil heats up, whisk together the club soda, flour, salt and egg yolk until smooth in a large mixing bowl.
- When it thickens to resemble the consistency of cake batter, stop whisking and set it aside.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the water and baking soda until well combined. Set it aside.
- Dip the mussels on each skewer in the batter and turn it until all the mussels are well covered.
- After the batter, immediately dip the mussels in the baking soda and water mixture and put it in the hot oil to fry.
- Turn the mussels on the skewer as they cook with thongs so they brown evenly on all sides.
- Put a few hot skewers on a plate with a dollop of tarator sauce for dipping. You can also spread some tarator sauce between the crusts of a hunk of Turkish bread.
- Then use the bread to hold the mussels and slide them off the skewer.
You have an instant fried mussel sandwich!
Recipe Courtesy The Spruce Eats photo from Yemek Tarifleri