Beer Battered Fried Mussels with Garlic Aioli

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Katie Wiley

Katie Wiley, also known as The Kitchen Wild has a strong drive to share with the world how simple, fun, and delicious foraging for wild foods can be. She calls the picturesque central Oregon coast home, and lives only a short walk from the Pacific Ocean and Alsea Bay so she’s never far from some of the most delicious and fun-to-gather foods on the planet.

Whether she’s pulling up pots of Dungeness crab, catching crawfish with her bare hands or raking for cockle clams she always has her husband and three children right by her side on these adventures and hopes to inspire you to do the same.

Latest posts by Katie Wiley (see all)

• Beer Battered Fried Mussels with Garlic Aioli - April 7, 2023
• Small Batch Garlic Beer Broth for Gooseneck Barnacles  - March 18, 2023

Get ready for some fun facts about Oregon coast mussels that you never knew you wanted to know.

I’ve prepared a lot of mussels since moving to the Oregon coast, but whenever I’ve prepared mussels in the past I’ve always kept them in their shells so I hadn’t ever really paid much attention to any differences between the mussels themselves. However, these Beer Batter Fried Mussels needed to be removed from their shells before battering and deep frying so that’s when I noticed one very obvious difference between the mussels: their color. Some were a vibrant orange while others were a creamy white. How had I never noticed this before and more importantly, what would cause such an obvious color difference? The answer might surprise you as much as it surprised me; it’s their gender! The orange mussels are female and the creamy white mussels are male. Both have the same rich, sweet flavour but look quite a bit different from another.

Which led me to my next rather obvious question after learning about mussel genders: how do mussels reproduce? According to Google, marine mussels reproduce by releasing their eggs and sperm into the water. The young then begin life as floating plankton for between one and six months before settling on the bottom as an adult. As the mussel develops, it grows a byssus, aka the beard, which is a mass of threads it uses to secure itself to a solid surface where it will continue to grow.

Now, after learning that mussels start out as microscopic floating plankton, I can’t be the only one who’s curious about how long it takes for them to get to a harvestable size or even just how long mussels live in general, right? Well this answer might just be the most surprising yet. Out of the 297 different species of mussels, some live for over 100 years. However, the mussels we have here on the Oregon coast which are blue mussels or sometimes referred to as bay mussels only have a lifespan of approximately 12 years and take roughly 12-18 months to grow to a harvestable size.

So the next time you’re out harvesting mussels, impress your friends and family with these random mussel facts then head home and whip up a deliciously crisp and garlicky batch of Beer Batter Fried Mussels with everyone’s favorite Garlic Aioli dipping sauce.

Serving Size: 4-6 servings as an appetizer

Time to make: 60 min

Equipment Needed: Mortar and pestle

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Beer Battered Fried Mussels with Garlic Aioli

5 from 2 votes

Recipe by Katie Wiley Course: Answers from the Field, Fishing, Wild Recipes

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

50

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Cook Mode

Keep the screen of your device on

Ingredients

• For the Mussels

• 1 cup Krusteaz tempura mix 

• 1 cup Rogue Colossal Claude beer (or any IPA)

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• 1/2 tsp pepper

• 20-40 mussels, removed from shells

• Oil for frying
  

• For the Aioli

• 3 garlic cloves

• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt

• 1/2 cup Mayo

• 1 Tbsp. Fresh squeezed lemon juice

• 2 Tbsp. Olive oil

• 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 

Preparation

• Preheat oil to 375°
• Mix all ingredients in a bowl, dip in mussels to coat evenly and deep fry until golden brown. Approximately 1 minute per side. Drain on paper towels.
• For the aioli: with a mortar and pestle smash garlic with coarse sea salt until mixed into a smooth paste.
• In a small mixing bow, add mayo, lemon juice, olive oil, Worcestershire and garlic mixture from mortar and pestle. 
• With a hand mixer or whisk, mix for approximately one minute. 
• Serve the fried mussels alongside the aioli to dip in. Enjoy!

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