Gourmet4ONE: White Wine Mussels with Chives and Paprika

What you need:

1 bag of mussels (I got some PEI rope grown blue mussels from my local, 3.99, smell them first! you are hoping that they don't smell fishy, if they do, don't buy them!
2 bowls
some white wine, I used a tasty Jacobs Creek Semillon Chardonnay that was a gift for my birthday, thanks again sammy n ryan!
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of really good paprika, I used some from morocco, smells so much different than the cheap stuff you get at the grocery store
nub of butter
tbsp of finely chopped chive

PREPING THE MUSSELS:

Get two bowls ready, in one put empty the bag of mussels and rinse thoroughly in cold water.
Go through each mussel individually and put the ones that are closed into the other bowl, throw out any mussels with cracked shells.
The mussels that didn’t open, tap them on the counter, or with your finger a few times, give them a minute, if they are still alive they will close completely, and you can put them with the other good mussels. If they still don’t open after being tapped a few times and waiting, throw them out.
NOW, take a regular knife and use the back of it to scrape the tiny barnacles off the mussels under some cold water. This will take 5-10 minutes, so put on some music and get into a rhythm. Give the mussels one last good rinse and drain them completely. Store in fridge if not using right away, but if waiting a day to use them, you’re better off double checking the mussels with the tap test with any mussels that are open (BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY).

Directions:

Heat butter in pan until it foams on med-high, then add the garlic, chives, and paprika. Cook for less than a minute, then add a good splash of wine (not too much because the mussels have water trapped in them, called liquor.

Stir to combine, and after 30 seconds add the mussels. Cook for 5 or so minutes with the lid on until all the mussels have blossomed open, watch them open over a glass of Jacob’s Creek Semillon Chardonnay.