Just got back from a lovely long weekend down in Cornwall staying in a tiny cottage in Trevone is just a few miles from Padstow , Having done a walk around the headland from Trevone to Padstow home of the Rick Stein empire ( 7 businesses and counting ) we pretty covered in mud and sand but did manage some fish and chips in the Stein chippy, have to say the Magpie at Whitby is better and more fun… but I might just be being picky.
We had some delicious pasties as well … but for me seaside means one thing .. mussels .
On my family holidays we would always gather mussels from the rocks at Saunton North Devon . However it being November the tides are much higher and mussels only exposed for a few hours so we only managed to get to them on the last day.
Heading home with a bag full of mussels did make me very happy and I figured I would do them the same as we used to when I was little you might know it as Moules mariniere , for me it will always be Summer Holiday Mussels
My dad would always soak freshly picked mussels overnight in a bucket with a little flour . I think this removed an impurities which given the state of the British beaches in the 1980 when sewage was pumped directly onto them it might have been sensible .
Nowadays If you have picked your own mussels you will need to remove the little beards , and rinse them well no need for soaking but you also need to remove any mussels that have opened & after cooking you should not eat any mussel that has not opened.
Summer Holiday Mussels
1kg of mussels
1 medium onion finely chopped
5 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 glasses of wine
1 tbsp of butter
3 tbsp of fresh flat leaf parsley finely chopped
- Lightly fry the garlic and onion a in a large lidded saucepan
- Add the mussels and wine and bring to a simmer and cover
- Cook for 5 minutes or until all the mussels have open
- Sprinkle over fresh parsley and ladle into bowls with plenty of the cooking liquor
- Eat with plenty of bread for mopping up the cooking liquour
I love mussels. We cooked them on Friday for the first time in ages, we didn’t manage to pick them ourselves though!
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