Moules-frites

Mussels steamed open in two batches so the pan never cools, with the chips fried as on the steak frites page.

Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains shellfish.

Ingredients

For the mussels

• 2 kg live mussels
• 4 shallots, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 50 g butter
• 300 ml dry white wine
• 2 bay leaves
• a large handful flat parsley, chopped
• 100 ml double cream, optional
• black pepper

For the chips

• chips, fried twice as on the steak frites page

Method

1. OPEN BEFORE COOKING, THROW IT AWAY; CLOSED AFTER COOKING, THROW IT AWAY. That is the whole safety rule and it is worth learning as one sentence. Tap an open one on the worktop first -- a live mussel closes within a few seconds, and if it does it is fine. One that stays open is dead and goes in the bin. After cooking, the test reverses: a shell still shut has not opened because it was not alive to begin with.
2. THEY ARE COOKED IN TWO BATCHES SO THE PAN NEVER COOLS. Two kilos tipped in at once drops the temperature, and the ones at the bottom overcook into rubber while the ones on top are still shut. Half at a time, four to five minutes each, and every mussel gets the same cooking.
3. THE LIQUID IS NOT DRUNK FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE PAN. Whatever grit the mussels held settles there. Pour the cooking liquor off the top through a sieve, reduce it, and pour it back over -- which also concentrates it.
4. AND THE CHIPS DECIDE THE TIMING OF THE WHOLE DISH. They are fried twice with a cooling gap, so they go on first: first fry, cool, then the mussels while the oil comes back up, then the second fry. Mussels wait for nothing, so everything else is ready before they go in the pan.
5. Mussels tipped into a sink of cold water. Any that are open TAPPED, and discarded if they do not close. Beards pulled off, barnacles scraped, rinsed in two changes of water.
6. Chips given their FIRST fry as on the steak frites page, and left on a rack to cool.
7. Butter in a very large pan. Shallots and garlic softened 4 minutes without colouring.
8. Wine and bay in, brought to a hard boil.
9. HALF the mussels in, lid on, 4 to 5 minutes, the pan shaken once, until open.
10. Lifted out with a slotted spoon into a warm bowl. Any still closed discarded.
11. The second half cooked the same way in the same liquor and added to the bowl.
12. The liquor poured off the top through a sieve into a clean pan, leaving the last centimetre behind, and boiled down by about a third. Cream stirred in if using. Pepper, and no salt -- the mussels carry plenty.
13. The chips given their SECOND fry, 2 to 3 minutes at 190C, drained and salted.
14. The liquor poured over the mussels, parsley thrown on, and both taken to the table at once with a bowl for the empty shells.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes