A tasty dish best served with French stick bread and uses port or sherry to give it extra flavour
Ingredients for 4
- 2 Kg live mussels in the shell
- 1 Large white onion
- 4 Cloves Garlic finely grated
- A few sprigs of thyme or lemon thyme
- Zest of one unwaxed lemon
- 400ml White Sherry or white Port
- Handful of finely chopped fresh parsley or coriander leaves
- 400ml Double cream
- 30g butter
- Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
Method
Discard any mussels which are open that do not close if tapped with a spoon and any that have broken shells. For the rest pull out the beards and scrape off any barnacles.
Use a large pot which has a lid that is big enough for all the mussels and gently poach the onion and garlic in the butter until the aroma is released.
Add the sherry or port, and thyme, and cream and bring to the boil for 5 minutes. Discard the sprigs of thyme.
Add the mussels and put the lid on over a high heat.
Stir them once or twice until most of the mussels have opened.
Discard any that have not opened and dish up in bowls with a liberal serving of the sauce and garnish with the herbs and season as needed with the salt and pepper.
Serve with fresh French stick bread with butter and optionally with salted French fries.
Gavin McArdell
