Moules marinière
When it comes to musselsMoules marinièreis probably the most famous dish we can think of. Some modern recipes include cream, but in the classic way the fresh mussels are cooked in just white wine, shallots, parsley and butter. If you want to omit dairy just use olive oil or dairy-free spread. Serve it with crusty bread or French fries.
Ingredients
Method
- Clean the mussels: rinse them well, then pull out the ‘beards’ and any bits of seaweed. If any mussels are still open, give them a little tap. If they don’t close then discard them.
- In a very large saucepan heat a spoonful of olive oil or a knob of butte, and gently soften the onion, garlic and bay leaf.
- Using a vegetable peeler cut thin strips of the lemon rind and add these to the pan. Pour in the wine.
- Turn up the heat and reduce the sauce by half. Add the cleaned mussels, put the lid on and simmer for 2-3 minutes, shaking the pan a bit to coat the mussels with the sauce.
- Take the lid off and look at the shells – if they more than 1 cm wide open, they are done. Strain them, keeping the juice and put them in a serving dish. Discard those that haven’t opened properly then cover the dish with a lid.
- Put the cooking juice back into the saucepan. Add half of the lemon juice, bring to the boil and reduce the sauce a bit more then add the chopped parsley and the remaining lemon juice.
- Pour the sauce over the mussels and garnish with the chopped tomato.