It's June. So what? When is a good season for mussels? That's a hard question to answer. The received wisdom is that you should eat them in the months with the letter "R" in them (i.e. September - April), but I think that they are good all year round. I don't know how scientific the "R" month strategy is, but one reason is that the mussels spawn in the summer, so the meat is a little bit smaller. Sometimes you'll get a batch and they are really thin, and that's because they just released all of their "goods". The other reason is safety, because if you're not dealing with a good fisherman, sure, the water is a bit warmer and so bacteria can grow if they aren't stored and handled properly.
The mussels here were from St. Lawrence Market, and they cost $2.99/lb. Typically, I can eat 1 lb myself for an appetizer, or it's a side dish, half a pound per adult is okay.
The quickest way to cook them at home is just to fry up some onions, garlic, carrot, celery, until soft, then add the mussels and some liquid (e.g. broth, white wine, water, clamato) and cook until the mussels open which is anywhere from 3 to 6 minutes. Save those juices at the bottom of the pan, I call that the nectar, and just add parsley into it at the end and pour it all on top of the mussels.
Throw out the mussels that don't open, because they're dead and you have no idea how long they've been dead. In the photo above, I made a tomato stew (canned tomatoes, clam juice, onions, garlic, oregano), and then added the mussels at the last minute and I ate it with baguette cut into triangular pieces - that way you get lots of soft surface area to soak up the liquids with. I've heard that you shouldn't serve them to kids under 5.
Sometimes you need to debeard them, but I've found that in Toronto, they generally take out the beards for you. Mussels with beards in seem to be able to be stored alive for longer.
On Mussels (facts come from Wikipedia)
Mussel is the common name used for members of several families of clams or bivalvia mollusca. Most of us are used to seeing the "blue mussel" here in North America. This is interesting - 80% of cultured mussels are produced in Prince Edward Island. When I was in Vancouver, though, I noticed that there was a lot of mussels from Washington states, in fact an estimated 2.9M pounds of mussels were harvested in 2010 valuing roughly $4.3M.
Mussels can be smoked, boiled, steamed, roasted, barbecued or fried in butter or vegetable oil. You can get smoked canned mussels at most grocery stores, in the same area as canned tuna, and you can put them right on crackers.
In Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, mussels are often consumed with french fries ("moules-frites") or bread.
As opposed to the Blue Mussel, New Zealand green lipped mussels can be found in restaurant here in Canada but almost always in their previously frozen form and on the half shell. Why would someone use a frozen mussel? My guess is that they are safer to handle than live mussels, especially if you're not selling a whole lot of them in your restaurant. The meat is quite large, but chewier, because they were previously frozen.
Mussels are a high protein food source. Their low fat content makes them potentially healthier than other protein sources, such as beef, which can contain a lot of saturated fat. Mussels are also low in calories. Mussels are also an excellent source of vitamin B12 and selenium - Vitamin B12 is important in the functioning of metabolism processes and a deficiency can cause fatigue and depression, as well as other symptoms. Mussels are also good sources of other B vitamins (particularly folate), phosphorus, manganese and zinc. Mussels are a very good source of omega-3 fatty acids and are considered an excellent seafood choice.
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