All new food thread - recipes, pics and more!

[Womble9]

It is easy mate. Here is how I get down.

INGREDIENTS

Mussels
Shallots
Bunch of fresh curly leaf parsley
One garlic clove
Good quality butter
About two glasses of nice white wine (I use a good muscadet)

First of all, de-beard your mussels and take out any dead ones. This is very important as you will know.

Next, gently fry the shallots and garlic in the butter. When they are soft and translucent, chuck in half of the parsley, turn the heat up and and then add the wine.

Let this reduce down until the alcohol burns off - will take a few minutes.

Finally, add the mussels and the rest of your parsley, using a big spoon or summat toss the mussels in the liquor and then put a lid on the pot. Cook for a few minutes until they are opened up and cooked, basically!

Enjoy them with some nice crusty bread.

If you desire, you can remove the mussels from the cooking sauce/liquor and then thicken the sauce by adding some butter and cream. This will be very rich, mind so go careful.

You can also add Maldon salt and a bit of pepper to taste but bearin mind you don;t want it too salty - the mussels will already be slightly salty (they are from the sea lol) and might be salt in your butter.

Enjoy!!!!!!

Chhers for that mate, it sounds truly mouth watering. I've cut, pasted and printed it for tomorrow nights tea . Any recomendations as to what to look out for when buying the Messels? Oh and sorry to have fallen at the first hurdle but what / how is the de beadring bit done and how do I recognise which ones are dead (is it closed shells?) ?

[Big Seany]

When you buy mussels you need to just make sure they are as fresh as possible and from a reputable place. A good local fishmongers is best - avoid going to supermarket unless it is Waitrose who tend to do some really good seafood. The beard is the little piece of string-like material that the mussels use to attach to stuff. It will be poking out of the edge of the shell. All you do is rip it off and chuck it away. If any of the mussels are open before you cook them then that means they are dead - so throw those away unless you want to die of mollusc based food poisoning.

[Sarkster]

Any that dont close when you tap em before cooking, and dispose of any that dont properly open once cooked.

I do mine EXACTLY the same way Seany, good lad!

Problem here is we're too far from the sea for decent mussels. Now, when I lived in NZ...

[Big Seany]

A big bowl of those, some crusty bread and a bowl of chips - is there a better meal? I don't think so.

[k0pp0]

I'm having an 'out of the jar' Chicken Korma tonight.. Lazy Bast'!

[Womble9]

When you buy mussels you need to just make sure they are as fresh as possible and from a reputable place. A good local fishmongers is best - avoid going to supermarket unless it is Waitrose who tend to do some really good seafood. The beard is the little piece of string-like material that the mussels use to attach to stuff. It will be poking out of the edge of the shell. All you do is rip it off and chuck it away. If any of the mussels are open before you cook them then that means they are dead - so throw those away unless you want to die of mollusc based food poisoning.

Hmmm good point re the freshness off them which is something that I don't have too muuch confidence in at my local Morrisons fish counter. I Think I'll leave it till Sat a.m when I'm in Leeds and pop into the fish market. Thanks again for the tips and I'll let you know how I get on .

[Dirty Sanchez]

That's exactly as I do them. Usually add about 150ml of single cream at the end with plenty of black pepper.

[Big Seany]

LOL at all the people jumping on my mussel bandwagon.

[vanpeebles]

I love mussels but nearly always just get to have them in vinegar

[Big Seany]

Nothing wrong with that. Cockles with malt vinegar and white pepper is a british classic, son. No reason why mussels cannot be served in the same fashion innit?

[ShadowDancer]

I love cockles too. I usually pick them up from supermarket in jar as I'm not quite used to the taste of them fresh.

Tea tonight...Cheese topped bap and savoury chicken rice..yum!

[vanpeebles]

I love it when they are really sharp in the vinegar and your face is like >_<

[Sarkster]

LOL at all the people jumping on my mussel bandwagon.

To be fair, all of our recipes could have been more or less cribbed from this one :P

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/steamedmusselswithwi_68022.shtml

[Big Seany]

LOL yeah that is exactly the same!!!! My dad taught me how to make them to be fair.

[Anpanman]

nabe for us