Moules Marinière

Prep Time:

30 minutes

Cook Time:

5 minutes

Serves:

2

When I had my first restaurant on Tower Bridge Road, I became friends with some wealthy Parisians whose parents had an old farmhouse in Normandy, complete with a cider press and a still for making Calvados.

I remember eating this dish with them there, and years later I put it on the menu at The Tree Bistro. Classically, Moules Marinière doesn’t contain crème fraîche, but my customers loved the addition — so it stayed.

Ingredients

1kg mussels, scrubbed, debearded and rinsed, with any open or broken shells discarded
1 medium shallot, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
30g butter
1 bay leaf, torn
150ml Normandy or Cornish cider
100ml crème fraîche
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Method

Melt the butter in a deep saucepan over a low heat. Add the shallot and garlic and gently cook without allowing them to colour.
Turn up the heat, add the mussels and pour in the cider. Cover with a lid and cook for 3–4 minutes, giving the pan a good shake every minute or so, until the mussels have opened.
Remove from the heat and discard any mussels that remain closed. Stir through the crème fraîche and chopped parsley.
Serve straight away, ideally with plenty of crusty bread for soaking up the sauce.

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Moules Marinière