cooking with beer - beer steamed mussels

I tend to embarrass myself when eating mussels at a restaurant (just imagine my face dripping with butter), so I like to make them at home from time to time.  If you like mussels, you'll love this recipe. It's incredibly easy to make and absolutely delicious.

Ingredients
1 lb cleaned mussels
12 (or so) oz beer
 - Go with something light and not bitter. A hefeweizen or witbier is classic, but if you want to be adventurous you could try using a Belgian tripel.
 - I went with Adelbert's Rambler, a blonde. If you can find their Philosophizer, their wit, I highly recommend using that.
1 stick of unsalted butter, plus more for buttering sliced bread
 - What? You have to have a butter sauce for the grilled bread!
2 garlic cloves thinly sliced or minced
2 small leeks, thinly sliced
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
Sliced bread

1. The first step to cooking with beer is to pour yourself a glass of the beer you're cooking with.
2. Butter up some sliced bread and grill over high heat. Set aside in a warm oven to keep warm.

3. Melt half of the stick of butter over medium heat.
4. Add the leeks and shallot with some salt and pepper and cook until translucent.
 - You could also add some chorizo at this point if you want to get crazy!
5. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds.
6. Add the mussels to the pan.
7. Pour the beer all over the mussels.
8. Add the rest of the butter in sliced segments on top of the mussels.
 - As the mussels open, the butter melts into the mussels!
9. Cover the pan and let the beer steam until the mussels open.
10. When you see all of the mussels open, take off the heat and serve immediately into a large bowl. Pour all of the butter sauce over the opened mussels. Serve with the grilled bread and soak up all of the beer/butter goodness!
 - If a mussel does not open, discard it.

Enjoy, and cheers!