Steamed mussels with colored peppers and feta cheese

Bring some water in a pot to the boil over low heat. You will notice that the mussels open. Discard those mussels that remain closed.

Strain their precious stock many times carefully, passing it through a paper towel. Place the mussels in the fridge, either with or without their shells (I stored half of them with shells and half without).

Put some oil in a large frying pan, the peppers, the onion and the garlic and sauté very little, just to make them tender.

Stir in the ouzo and as soon as it evaporates add the finely chopped tomato with a pinch of sugar as well as the thoroughly strained stock of the mussels plus the ginger.

Let the light sauce boil

And add the feta cheese, salt, pepper, boukovo and finally, the coarsely crumbled feta cheese.

Add the mussels and serve with lemon juice and homemade bread! Bon appétit!

Clean the mussels as followingWhen you buy oysters you have to make sure that they are tightly closed. If they are open they might have spoiled. So, discard the open ones. When you buy them you usually get them in a net that keeps them tightly together so that they don't open. At home, wrap them tightly in a towel as they are in the net or place them in a bowl of water to keep them alive longer. How to clean the musselsFirst, remove the "beard" (it is the part that the mussel uses to attach itself to the environment where it lives). Since the mussel dies the moment youremove the beard, do this at the last moment prior to cooking and never earlier. You don't cut off the beard but you pull it upwards to fully remove it. A mussel is considered cleaned when the white part at the end of its beard comes out. The second part your remove are the barnacles, the white spots on the shells which you can remove either with special brushes or or a knife. Finally, rub them with a sponge or metal sponge and rinse them so that they are completely clean.