The Recipe Room

Moules mariniere brings back memories of holidays in the south of France and close to the Spanish border where moules frites (mussels and chips) and mussels in Asturian cider are very popular.

British Mussels are in season in February.  If you’re lucky enough to find good ones, you will soon be making succulent and tasty mussels in a white wine and cream sauce, which you can enjoy as a starter, or as a main meal with nice hunks of granary bread, chips or a mixed salad.  It looks stunning in its presentation and is sophisticated to the palette.

Moules mariniere is most fun prepared in company, sampling the white wine together as you cook.  I use a splash of good white wine from the bottle I want to drink with the meal rather than a cheap cooking wine, which I believe improves the flavour significantly. Try this recipe with a very well chilled oaked chardonnay.

What you need:

• 1.75kg fresh mussels
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• 15g butter
• 2 tbsp fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• 100ml white wine
• 120ml double cream (substitute for light crème fraiche if desired)

What you do:

1. Wash the mussels thoroughly, removing and binning any that have opened and don’t close when lightly pressed in your fingers.
2. Remove the beards from the mussels – these are the tough and fibrous strands which stick out of the closed shells.  Rinse the mussels once again.
3. Melt the butter in a large pan (which needs to be large enough for the mussels to reach only half way up the pan) and fry the shallots and the onion until soft.
4. Splash in the wine and add the mussels.  Turn up the heat at this point, cover the pan with a lid, and steam the mussels for 3-4 minutes.  Whilst the mussels are cooking, move them about every now and then by gently shaking the pan; there’s no need to remove the lid to do this.
5. Pour in the cream, add the coriander, and remove from the heat.

10-15 minutes to prepare and cook

Makes: 4 generous starters or light main meals

Tags: British Mussels, butter, coriander, crème fraiche, double cream, garlic, Moules Mariniere, mussels, mussels in a white wine and cream sauce, oaked chardonnay, seasonal, shallots, white wine

This entry was posted on Monday, 26 March, 2012 at 12:14 am by Toni Simpson and is filed under Less than 30 minutes, Main Courses, Meal for 4 people, Starters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed RSS 2.0. You can leave a comment, or make a trackback from your own blog.