Moules marinières: a French bistro at home

Sailor’s mussels – a classic recipe for mussels in a wine and cream sauce. These are probably in every French bistro. Delicious with a crispy baguette or French fries and of course a glass of white wine. If you already have fresh mussels, other ingredients are usual for Lithuanian cuisine – onion or leek, cream, dry wine. After all, mussels in wine and cream sauce!

I calculate half a kilo of mussels per person, so the recipe is for two people.

I calculate half a kilo of mussels per person, so the recipe is for two people.

Mussels Moules Marinieres

This is a simple and easy recipe, but as with everything, there are some rules. Cook according to the instructions and you will definitely get it like in France.

Tools

• A large pot
• Spatula

Ingredients

• 1 kg of fresh mussels
• 200 ml dry white wine
• 200 ml of cream
• You can replace 1 medium onion with a pair
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 stalks of celery
• 1-2 tbsp. olive oil or butter
• black pepper, a couple of sprigs of thyme

Manufacturing

• Rinse the mussels under running water, no sand should remain. Clean the beard, seaweed. Throw away broken or otherwise unreliable. Better not to risk it. In the recipes, it is written that each still needs to be fertilized and checked to see if it is alive. I skip this step, especially when I have to check a larger quantity. However, in no way do I ignore another piece of advice, to immediately throw away and not eat those that are produced and will not open.
• Prepare other ingredients. Cut onions, garlic, leeks, celery, if you add hot pepper.
• Prepare the tools you will need. A large pot where you will cook the mussels, a spatula for mixing. It’s more fun to cook when everything is at hand.
• Fry the onions and/or leeks in the same pot in which everything will be cooked, on butter or olive oil, whichever you prefer. When the onions are soft, add the garlic and pepper.
• Reduce the heat and pour the wine into the pot. Wait until it heats up and the alcohol evaporates.
• Add the celery and mussels, cover and let them cook in the wine for a few (3-4) minutes.
• Check and if the clams have already opened, pour the cream. Wait a minute, another for the cream to heat up and remove from the heat.
• Add parsley and then it’s ready to serve!

Notes

You can eat mussels with a toasted baguette, or like the Belgians, with fries and aioli sauce.

The baguette should be cut, you can cover it with cheese, and put it in a heated oven. The right time — before starting to fry the onions, you just need to remember when they are fried and remove them in time.

Cook the fries according to the instructions, we like frozen wedges. You can prepare homemade aioli, but sometimes it’s not a sin to buy it.