Baked Mussels With Mushrooms and Bacon

~Leslie~'s Note:

A great hors-d'oeuvre or first course served with a small salad. Make ahead and reheat for 5 minutes in a 350ºF (180ºC) oven. Delicious! From Food and Drink.

• Total Time: 20 mins
• Prep Time: 0 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 2

• 1 lb mussels , approx. (16 to 18)
• 2⁄3; cup pilsner beer
• ½ cup whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons finely diced shallots
• ¼ cup finely diced smoked bacon
• 1 ½ cups mixed mushrooms (oyster and brown cremini mushrooms)
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• ½ cup grated Fontina cheese
• salt & freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF (200ºC).
2. Put mussels, pilsner and cream in a large pot, cover with a lid, bring to a boil and steam for 2 to 3 minutes, or until mussels have opened.
3. Remove from heat and drain, reserving cooking liquid in a bowl and discarding any mussels whose shells remain closed.
4. Strain cooking liquid through a fine sieve, place in a pan and boil for 5 minutes or until thickened. Reserve for sauce.
5. Remove mussels from shells, separate top and bottom halves of shells, discarding top halves. Reserve remaining shells and mussels separately.
6. Melt butter over high heat in a large skillet. Sauté shallots, smoked bacon and mushrooms for 3 minutes, or until bacon is cooked and vegetables are soft.
7. Combine vegetable mixture with reserved mussels, reduced cooking liquid and chopped parsley.
8. Spoon mussels and mixture into reserved mussel shells. Place in a baking dish, top with grated cheese (at this point you can refrigerate for up to 24 hours until ready to serve) and bake for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and mussels are warmed through.
9. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Reviews

[susie cooks]

We really enjoyed these mussels! The combination of mushrooms, shallots and bacon is excellent. Mussels are one of our favorite dishes to make and we will be making this recipe again!

[Kim127]

Fabulous!! Very easy to make. The reduced pilsner and cream sauce give the stuffing mixture that extra zing. I subbed Canadian bacon for regualar bacon and used PEI mussels. Loved it and of course you can't go wrong with fontina! Made for the Babes of ZWT4.