Moules
It’s been a while since I put up a recipe and as the weekend looms, here’s a pretty good recipe for the perfect Friday night in.
- Approx 1kg Small mussels – big ones are too chewy.
- Butter
- Garlic
- Shallots
- Italian/Flatleaf Parsley
- Fresh Thyme
- Bottle of white wine
- Fresh cream
- Potatoes
- Sunflower oil
- Zest of one lemon
- Djion Mustard
- One whole egg + 2 yolks
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of sugar
Decent sized potatoes scrubbed and sliced into big chips. I leave the skins on. Put them into cold water for half an hour whilst you prepare everything else. (This is a good time to go through your mussels. Make sure that they’re all alive and have been bearded etc). Add the chips to boiling salted water and leave them in for six or so minutes so that they start to go floury. Take them out and quench them in cold water so that they stop cooking. Heat a pan with a good quantity of sunflower oil up – you want it to be about 180c. Put in a test chip, it should be consumed by angry bubbles. If not, it’s not hot enough and you will end up with a large chip cake.
Get a blender, pop in two egg yolks, one whole egg and a teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Add a pinch of white sugar and a pinch of salt. Start pulsing the blender and very, very gradually pour in sunflower oil. You want this to create an emulsion. When it’s started to become creamy, grate in the zest of half a lemon. Give it a pulse around until you have a substance that has the consistency of mayonnaise. That is because it is mayonnaise.
In a big pan with a lid, melt one large knob (approx an ounce) of butter in oil. Finely chop your shallots (four or so should be good) and fry them off in the butter with a couple of cloves of pureed garlic. Add your cleaned mussels to the pan, throw a bunch of thyme in and stir everything before putting the lid on for three or four minutes on full heat. Chop up two or three big handfuls of parsley. Shake the pan (with the lid on) to make sure that the mussels from the bottom work their way to the top and vice versa. Then, lid off, add half a bottle of white wine and half the parsley. Turn it down to a more gentle simmer and leave it for about six to eight minutes, tossing the mussels every couple of minutes. Turn the heat off, add a cup of cream to the pan and the remaining parsley, stir well, ensuring the mussels are well coated and put the lid back on.
Take out your chips and dry them on kitchen paper, salt and serve in a big serving bowl to share. Serve your mussels in a similarly communal dish.
Moule frite. You knows it.
Best served sat cross legged on the floor off the coffee table, cos you haven’t got any furniture.
