Mussels on the half-shell in Cilantro

It was in 2006, on our anniversary and I was huge, huge pregnant so we couldn't go anywhere to have a special anniversary dinner or celebration. So, I decided to cook special. Yep! It was only (apparently) 12 days before our beloved child was born and I was so heavy, watery, swollen, and hard to move, yet I cooked.

I dug into my recipe bank (which was not as 'much' as now) and found one of the recipe books we got as our wedding gift. It's called "Romance Without Reservation" by Lori and Michael Fagien (I put this link in case you're interested, but this is the only site I could find).

Anyway it's simple and so exotic and you can have it at your own home... enjoy!

Ingredients:
4 dozen mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded
¼ C olive oil
¼ finely chopped cilantro
2 tablespoon minced shallot
½ Teaspoon salt
½ Teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

Directions:
Discard any mussels that have broken shells or that do not clamp shut when tapped. Pour 1 inch of water into a large pot. Add the mussels to the pot. Cover, raise the heat to high and bring to boil. Cook, shaking the pot occasionally, just until the mussels open, about 3 minutes. Remove the open mussels. Continue to cook, uncovering the pot as necessary to remove the mussels as soon as their shells open. Discard any that do not open.
Heat the broiler. In a small bowl, combine the oil, cilantro, shallot and salt.
Pull off and discard the top shells of the mussels. Arrange the mussels on a baking sheet. Spoon the cilantro mixture over them and sprinkle with pepper. Broil just until heated through, about 1 to 2 minutes.