mussel in on croatia
Dining in Croatia is a wonderfully relaxed experience, but don’t be fooled into thinking that they don’t take their food seriously.
Croatians are fabulous cooks and as Intrepid Express reader Karen Keenan discovered, you’ll feel so satisfied after a local meal that you won’t want to move a mussel…
“A few years ago when I was on holiday in Croatia, we were treated to this marvellous recipe as a special feast type treat one day. The local people were very proud of this recipe and put a lot of love (as well as boasting and showing off) into showing us how it was made.
Fresh whole mussels in garlic-tomato broth:
First off a very big saucepan was produced (7 litre) and space was made on a gas cooker to heat it. One or two medium sized onions were peeled and chopped very finely and thrown in the pan, then fried gently in a little olive oil, as well as 5-6 cloves of the extra large, but quite mellow, local variety of garlic. Once this had been cooking for barely 2-3 minutes the locals threw in, with great abandon, about 3 kilos of fresh washed and debearded local mussels, along with about a 1 kilo tin of tomato pulp and a good half-bottle of red wine!
Maybe it was longer, but it seemed like only a few minutes before the chef was sprinkling in a little well-chopped parsley and grinding over some black pepper, before proudly dishing up fresh steamed mussels clad in a garlicy-red wine-tomato broth – served with a hearty slice of local bread and olive oil to mop up the last of the sauce after you had lingered over each and every mussel – truly delicious!”
Tour Croatia with Intrepid on trips like these great small group adventures:
Central Europe Encompassed – 29 days
Croatia Family Adventure – 7 days
* photo by Colin Young – Intrepid Photography Competition
The mussels in Croatia are divine, but the best ones are found in Montenegro.