Mussels in white wine (moules marinières)

Mussels simply cooked in white wine, garnished with fresh parsley – there couldn’t possibly be a better dish to serve with a cold beer (and perhaps a side of fries) on a hot summer afternoon. Making this recipe yourself at home is easy – and even quicker if you buy mussels that have already been scrubbed and debearded by a fishmonger.

Credit: Luke Nguyen's France

• serves

  4

• prep

  25 minutes

• cook

  10 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 4 kg mussels
• 125 g butter
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 4 French shallots, sliced
• 1 leek, sliced
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ bunch thyme, leaves picked
• 250 ml (1 cup) white wine
• chopped flat-leaf parsley, to garnish
• pepper, to season

Instructions

Clean mussels under running water, scrubbing off any dirt or seaweed and removing beards.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add the garlic, shallot, leek, bay leaves and thyme. Cook for 6–7 minutes or until vegetables are translucent.

Add the mussels and the wine, cover and increase heat to high. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3–5 minutes or until the mussels have just opened.

Discard any unopened mussels. Transfer mussels to serving dishes and pour over the liquid. Garnish with the parsley.

Season with pepper, if you like, but never with salt – the mussels will be salty enough. Serve.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.