Rellenong Tahong (Stuffed Mussels)

When I was blog hopping last week, my attention was caught by a recipe  that I found on one of the blogs I recently discovered, Jenn Valmonte's "I Live To Eat". Jenn is also a Filipina Foodie who shares her food trips and other related food articles on her blog including her own cooking adventures. Last April 29, she featured a recipe called Mussels Relleno (Stuffed Mussels). Though I've heard about it, I haven't had it before. All I remember my mom cooking were rellenong manok (stuffed chicken), rellenong bangus (stuffed milk fish), rellenong alimasag (stuffed crabs) and rellenong talong (stuffed eggplant). Because making rellenong manok and rellenong bangus is quite complexed especially the deboning part,  I never tried making them...but I've cooked rellenong alimasag and rellenong talong several times. Jenn's recipe intrigued me enough that I promised myself to give rellenong tahong a try this week.

Relleno comes from the Spanish word "rellenar" which means "to stuff". In the Philippines, ground pork and vegetables like green peas, carrots and bell pepper are used as extenders for relleno. Jenn's recipe called for ground beef, green peas and raisins. Because I intended to post my mussels relleno for my Meatless Fridays, I decided to totally alter her recipe. I thought of just combining mussels with vegetables. I kept on thinking what would be the perfect vegetable for this. I don't want the other ingredients to overpower the taste of mussels. After some serious thinking which lasted for about 30 minutes (LOL), I came up with the idea of using spinach. I've tried using spinach on my Mussels Tinola and I found it complementing the flavor of mussels very well. I was confident that it will work the same way on Mussels Relleno...and it did!

Ryan and the girls loved it. So here I am, sharing the recipe with you. Thanks to Jenn for the idea of Mussels Relleno! I wouldn't have come up with this if not for her post! Do visit her blog, "I LIVE TO EAT" for a lot of mouthwatering recipes!

*I'm sharing this on Fat Camp Friday, Friday Potluck@EKat's Kitchen, Foodie Friday, Fresh Bites Friday and Feed Me Tweet Me Follow Me Home.

Prep Time:~15 mins                 Cook Time:~10 mins                  Yield: 24 pcs.        

Ingredients:

• 24 pcs. cooked mussels
• ½ cup yellow onion, minced
• 2 Tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• ½ Tbsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• ¼ cup flour
• ½ grated parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp ground parsley for garnishing
• Vegetable oil for frying

Procedure:

1. Remove mussels from the shells and reserve the shells. Chop the mussel meat.

2. In a bowl, combine mussel meat, onions, garlic, spinach and parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well. 

3. Add flour and eggs. Mix well.

4. Spoon filling into reserved shells. In a deep frying pan over medium heat, fry mussels in vegetable oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. 

5. Serve immediately!

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