Recipe - Steamed Mussels With Orange Fennel And Garlic

1 Navel orange
2 lg Garlic cloves; mashed to
paste
; with
One half teaspoon Salt
1/3 cup Finelychopped shallots
One half cup Finelychopped fennel bulb
(sometimes called anise)
1 teaspoon Fennel seeds
2 tablespoon Unsalted butter
One fourth cup Dry white wine
One half cup Chicken broth
1 pound Mussels; (preferably
; cultivated),
; scrubbed well,
And beards pulled off
1 tablespoon Chopped fresh parsley leaves

With a vegetable peeler remove three 3 by 1/2inch strips orange zest. Cut
remaining peel and pith from orange with a sharp knife and discard. Cut out
fruit sections from between membranes, discarding membranes, and finely
chop enough fruit to measure 1/3 cup, reserving remaining fruit for another
use. In a large saucepan cook garlic paste, shallots, chopped fennel, and
fennel seeds in butter over moderate heat, stirring, until chopped fennel
is softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in wine and zest and boil 1 minute. Add
broth and return to a boil. Add mussels and cook, covered, with a
tightfitting lid, over high heat, checking them every minute, 3 to 8
minutes, transferring them as they open with a slotted spoon to a serving
bowl. (Discard any mussels that are unopened after 8 minutes.) Stir into
broth chopped orange, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste and spoon over
mussels. Serve with crusty bread. This recipe yields 2