Croquettes and Minarets: Midye Dolma (stuffed mussels)

My son Dan is a Burgaz boy. He adores everything about the island. I think what he loves most of all is the freedom. I found it difficult to allow him to walk to and from home around the island on his own but I knew that from a young age children walked about unaccompanied. Two years ago, Dan begged me to let him walk from the house to the club on his own. It wasn't far at all and I knew that he was confident and was familiar with the route. I told Amir to follow behind him just to be sure. Off Dan went with his swimming gear in his back pack, all happy, stroking cats and dogs along the way down the road with Amir following him like a detective. When I finished what ever I needed to do at home, I went to the club to join them. I walked round to where the decking area is by the sea as that's where we usually sit. I put my bags down and looked around for Amir & Dan. I could see two bottoms sticking up in the air. I walked over and saw that the pair of bottoms belonged to them. They were both kneeling down and peeping through the tiny cracks of the decking. I asked what they were doing and they said they were looking to see if there were mussels. Amir then borrowed Dan's goggles and dived down beneath the decking. So, I joined Dan with my bottom in the air to look through the gaps of the decking to see if I could see him swimming beneath us. He was no-where to be seen. Amir then re-appeared with a hand full of mussels to take home. He had gone to a different area where the boats are to collect them.
Being raised in a Jewish family I was not introduced to seafood. It was a big no-no at home. My Mother told me that seafood is very unhealthy and you could get food poisoning from it so it always worried me when Amir would buy stuffed mussels from the street sellers. I had the devil on one shoulder telling me "try it...try it" and the angel on my other shoulder telling me not to eat it. The devil spoke louder and so I tried one of Amir's home made stuffed mussels and I've been eating them ever since.

There is a saying in French that all the months containing the letter R (September-April) are the best months of the year to eat mussels.

800g fresh mussels

225g rice (not basmati or jasmine)

100g chopped onion

125g currents

1 level teaspoon black pepper

(Amir likes it quite peppery as the street sellers make but personally I would use less)

1 and half heaped teaspoons of cumin

1 and half heaped teaspoons of cinnamon

Quarter of lemon juice

2 and half teaspoons sugar

salt to taste.
oil

Drizzle oil in the bottom of a saucepan and blanch the chopped onions until slight colour change and soft.

Wash the rice well and place in the saucepan.

Add all the other ingredients, add water to 1cm above rice level and simmer until rice is cooked.

Leave to cool slightly.

Wash the mussels well in a colander.

The messy part.....

Prise the mussels open with a knife but leave the top half connected to the bottom half. You need to discard the beard (the hairy part inside the mussel.)

When all have been prepared in this way take a mussel and tear off the top half. Scoop up the rice mixture into the bottom part of the mussel and sandwich it together with the top half. Press down and with your finger wipe around the edge where rice has oozed out.

Place neatly around the saucepan.

Pour water over the top to dampen (you can measure about a finger width of water in a glass) place saucepan on a low heat and steam for approx 10 - 15 mins.

When cooled, store in fridge.
Serve cold with a drizzle of lemon juice.

Use the top half of the mussel as your spoon to scoop out the filling.