Mussels and Skinny Fries (Moules Frites)

MO

serves 2
time: 40 mins
prep: 10 mins (depending on how clean the mussels are)
cooking: 30 mins

Ingredients
800g potatoes (3 or 4 large potatoes)
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1kg mussels (cleaned and debearded)
150ml cream
150ml white wine
a small handful of parsley, finely chopped
olive oil
salt
crusty white bread to soak up the sauce

This recipe is really quick and very tasty. It’s a great way to use indigenous Irish mussels. If you want it to be really Irish you could use cider instead of wine and rapeseed oil instead of olive oil. Of course you could also deep fry the chips but I’ve given a guide here for how to cook them in the oven.

Note: You need to be really careful with shellfish because they can cause pretty nasty food poisoning. When sitting for a while, live mussels will open. A quick tap on a hard surface should cause them to close themselves again slowly. If not, they should be discarded as they are probably dead. Keep them in the fridge but do not keep them in a sealed container or bag as they need to be able to breath a little. And of course, they are best when they are super fresh.

1. Set the oven to heat to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6.

2. Cut the potatoes into thin chips around 1/2cm thick. Put them in a large bowl and pour 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil over them. Mix them together well to ensure a good coating of oil all over.

3. Spread them out on baking trays, making sure they’re not too crowded. Scatter a little salt over them and place them in the oven for around 30 mins. The oven doesn’t need to be fully preheated before they go in. Give them the odd shake to move them around during this time.

4. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot on a medium heat. Finely dice an onion and soften it in the oil with the lid on the pot. You don’t want it to colour, just to sweeten and soften.

5. While the onion fries, peel and finely dice the garlic. Add it to the onion, cover the pot and allow all of this to fry for another 2 or 3 minutes. Remove everything from the pot and set it aside. Make sure there’s nothing left in the pot or they will burn in the next step.

6. Turn the hob to a high heat. Return the pot to the hob and allow it to get good and hot. You’ll need to move quickly for the next step so make sure you have the wine and mussels to hand.

7. Toss in the mussels quickly but be careful. Steam will rise when their liquid hits the hot pot. Pour the wine over them immediately and put the lid on the pot. It’ll only take 2 or 3 minutes to cook the mussels and the wine will reduce quite a bit during this time too. Give the pot the odd shake to give the mussels room to open. Try not to take the lid off too often or you’ll let out all of the heat and steam.
   Note: If any of the mussels don’t open after 3 minutes of cooking on a high heat discard them as they are most likely dead.

8. When the mussels have all opened, which means they’re cooked and ready to eat, pour in the cream and add in the cooked onions and garlic and stir it all together with a little salt.

9. Allow all of this to get nice and hot and then divide it between two bowls. Scatter a little parsley over them and enjoy them with the chips.