fri03aug2012: mussels>moules marinières

Picture this: 32° & clear blue skies, out the back door beyond the infinity pool & over the hedge, stretches 12km of beach, raked daily, & out front the speedboat is parked in the marina just over the road, incase we need to run into town for more bottles of rosé. The scene for my next dish.

I'm in the south of France visiting friends in Sète. Sète is situated on an isthmus which juts out off the Mediterranean coastline heading east on route to Montpellier Marseilles & Monaco. Every summer the crowds flock to this coastline, for me in this place though it's all about the seafood. Walking past restaurants here, every second table seems adorned by platters of fruits de mer, moules & frites on every menu, oysters by the dozen, calamari...

Despite having spent a little time coasting the oyster beds around France now I feel still that the time to write oyster has not yet arrived, more oysters need to be sacrificed. I turn then to the mussel. The dish, moules marinières, is a classic. 

Ingredients: mussels

white wine -about a glass

onion/garlic -one of each

celery/leek/fennel bulb -a stalk of each
red or yellow capsicum -one will do

parlsey/thyme/peppercorns -plenty of each

mussels -about a kg

Method:

* scrub clean the mussel shells & yank out the beard (hairy bit)

* dice&slice the veg,add thyme, drop in a big pot with a knob of butter

* put all the clean mussels in the pot 

* pour the wine in, lid on, hot element

* wait til the liquid boils then allow 2-4 minutes to cook the mussels, shake the pot a few times to move mussels about. They will steam open when ready
(throw away the mussels which dont open) 
*add in the chopped parsley

* serve in bowls, with the broth, crusty white bread on the side

 [mah-reen-YEHR] 1. À la marinière is a French phrase meaning "mariner's style." It refers to the preparation of shellfish with white wine and herbs. It can also refer to a fish dish garnished with mussels. 2. Marinière sauce is a mussel stock-based bercy sauce enriched with butter or egg yolks.

                                  (http://www.answers.com/topic/marini-re-1#ixzz22OsIJvR1)

We had a lovely evening the night this dish was made. In the kitchen, everyone got busy which, in a house full of chefs, is always a sign of good things to come.  The evenings are cool here & we (ed: actually, not we but Bree who laid the table!) laid the table outside. Centre table sat the mussels, which we ate with our fingers - it's the way, really. Empty shells soon form a small mountain on the plate, don't worry - it's normal!
Bree made a caprese salad (one of my favouritefavouritefavourites) with avocado, I made my signature roast beetroot, walnut, goat's cheese, rocket & red current salad, Beth was making fish cakes for the guests in the villa next door so we bought a little more salmon, some prawns & a fillet of cod & added that to the mix with some orange kumara mash & loads of fresh herb, & made extra fish cakes for oursleves. Nick made the moules marinière, adding one more dish to his repertoire.

Conversation round the table involved a lot of flexing of mussels, as it were, comparing recipes & responding with the appropriate "yea that sounds good, but you should try..." type responses (every chef secretly knows their own version is best). Mussels are a favourite among chefs if for no other reason than that they are so easy to cook & taste so amazing. My mother used to dish them out to feed the masses when I was a kid, & everywhere I go, it's a dish I plate up at some point. Bree told me about a version she was shown & which has become a favourite of hers:

Moules a l'Oriental (Algerian)

2kg moules

1cup filtered mussel stock/water

1cup dry white wine

1cup white wine vinegar

1cup sunflower oil

1Tablespoon cumin

4cloves garlic

1tube tomato concentrate

pepper

Method:

*in a pot, in hot oil, cook out the cumin powder, garlic, tomato paste

*add the mussels, cleaned & washed, mix all about

*slowly pour in the liquids, over the mussels & put a lid on the pot

*shake the pot a few times, mussels will cook in 2-4 minutes

*to serve, ladle into bowls, with crusty bread & butter

Another version I like involves ginger, kaffir & lemongrass, a thai style stock with coconut cream & fresh coriander....which leads me to my final note: the liquid left in the pot is worth keeping. Strain this stock through a sieve & use it next time you make mussels. If space allows, freeze this stock in the ice-maker, keeping zip lock bags full of stock cubes, labelled & dated, for convenience next time around...

 

(While the northern hemisphere European mussels are nice'n'sweet'n'all, these New Zealand green lipped mussels are the beauties I miss cooking & gobbling up - big, fat, juicy & rich, they definitely take gold over their European cousins)