I love making a great pan of mussels to see in the weekend
After a week spent foraging for leftovers, making odds and ends stretch and finding new ways to justify how adding a handful of frozen peas to everything constitutes “health”, Friday night calls for newness. I love making a great pan of mussels to see in the weekend, tailoring their liquor to whatever my palate is craving.
Mussels must be among the most adaptable things – if a Normandy seaside is what you have a hankering for you can pick up a bottle of cider, a pot of crème fra?che and a little bacon; if it’s salty smokiness you’re after, chorizo should do the trick, crumbled and fried so it releases its rust-coloured oil, finished with plenty of lemon (juice and zest) and parsley.
I’ve been remembering recently how good curry powder is in anything that also contains some sort of dairy. It just loves butter and cream and it’s so good with fish and seafood. For this Friday night feast, I sweated finely chopped red onion, coriander stalks, garlic and little green chillies in butter, then added curry powder, freshly stripped corn kernels (they go wonderfully toasty in the golden butter), mussels and plenty of lime. It makes for the best liquor and you get corn and little bits of buttery onion in all the mussel shells.
You’ll need something for mopping, so a brief word on chips. Two words, in fact: make them. You won’t regret it. Bread is lovely, chips are better. I might in fact get that printed on a T-shirt. Don’t overthink it, just pick up a bottle of sunflower oil and a bag of potatoes (King Edwards are good for chips) and get frying. Do an initial fry over a low heat – more a poach – then a second, harder fry until golden brown. Add a little bowl of spicy mayo – or, even better, homemade aioli – and you’re away.