The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Moules Mariniere

Having failed to persuade my partner to share my bag of rope mussels I was determined to make a really great sauce. So I looked at a couple of good foodie blogs for inspiration. Veronica at La Recette du Jour had a great recipe  but I didn’t have curry powder. Joanna at Joanna’s Food had a tempting recipe  but I was tired and didn’t want to do the maths (her recipe was for 5 kilos).

In the end I looked at the cooking instructions on the label for Moules Mariniere. As Danny was getting restive and already grilling some burgers I plumped for the Waitrose recipe and added a tablespoon of lemon juice and a splosh of cream just before serving. It was wonderful. So good that I almost ate the entire kilo – now I could see the reason for cooking 5 kilos on Joanna’s blog.

Under extreme pressure Danny tasted a tiny drop of the sauce and liked it. I wonder if I could make a similar sauce to go with prawns, or fish using a dash of anchovy essence to make up for no mussels. What do you think?

Waitrose recipe for Moules Mariniere with lemon juice and cream

Ingredients:
1 kilo of fresh rope mussels
40 g of unsalted butter (I used salted)
3 shallots skinned and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic (skinned and crushed)
300 ml of medium dry white wine
1 bay leaf (I left this out)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
2 tsp of plain flour
2 tbsp of fresh chopped parsley
My additions:
1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice
50ml of single cream
Method:
In a large bowl of cold water wash and prepare the mussels – discard any broken ones and those that fail to close immediately when tapped. Remove the beards.
Heat 25g of butter gently in a large saucepan and add the chopped shallots, fry until they start to turn golden brown.
Add the wine, bay leaf, garlic, seasoning and massels.
Cover the pan and bring to the boil. Cook for 3-5 minutes, shaking the pan until the mussels open.
Remove the mussels and transfer to a warmed dish. Discard any broken or unopened mussels.
Continue to cook the liquid until it reduces by a third.
Mix the 15g of remaining butter with the flour to form a paste. Whisk into the liquid and bring to the boil stirring constantly. Add the parsley and season to taste. Pour over the mussels and serve with crusty bread. At the add the parsley stage I stirred in the cream and the lemon juice and let the sauce bubble for a bit before pouring over the mussels. I ate mine with garlic bread.