A day out resulting in a lovely meal

A day out turns into a mussels safari

Ebba and I went to Anglesey to pick a pony up. I really wanted to make it a fun and exciting day out so decided to wrap up some sandwiches, fruit and some water bottles for a picnic. We set off and ended up at a lovely spot by the Menai strait. At first we explored the beach, lots of pebbles, shells and other pieces of sea treasure. It’s amazing how beautiful these little things can be. We also found a  stranded giant jellyfish, I think it was a barrel.

Mussels

As the tide went out and the seabed was exposed I was stunned by the amounts of mussels, thousands! There was also little islands of oyster shells, so there must be some of them as well. There is an old law that anybody is allowed to collect 8 pounds of mussels and clams, if you are more greedy you need a licence. We made the decision to pick enough for a meal. Ebba really enjoyed the task and we soon had half a bucketful. I topped it up with water and we set off home. When you pick the mussels, make sure they are tightly closed, if you want to keep your mussels for a few days do leave their beards on. When you get home rinse them and put them in cold salted water in the fridge. Leave them like this overnight for them to filter and thereby clean themselves of mud etc. try to mimic the saltiness of the water they are used to, if you want to make it real right, bring some clean water from where you collected them. Just before cooking rinse them and remove the beards. You can cook them in different sauces but classic Moules marniere is very tasty and easy too.

Moules Marniere

Ingredients:
1-11/2kg of fresh or frozen mussels
Knob of butter
1/2 bottle of dry white wine
2-3 shallots or small strong onions
5-6 cloves of garlic
Handful of parsley
Some sprigs of thyme
2-3 bay leaves
2 vegetable stock cubes
250ml double cream

How to make it!

Melt the butter in a big saucepan add chopped up onion and garlic, let cook for a little while but watch not to burn. Add the wine, herbs and stock cubes, let simmer for a couple of minutes then add the cream, after a quick stir add the mussels, put a lid on the pan and leave to simmer for 5-10 min. Some recipes say 3 min but I find they need a little more to fully open. Serve the mussels with a bread stick, chips and some mayonnaise. Remember to discard any mussels that are open before cooking or closed after cooking. If you are using frozen shop bought mussels, do follow the recipe to enhance taste.

Good to know…

Interestingly all herbs included in the recipe show antibacterial and or anti microbial activity, has the specific herbs been chosen for this fact in the first place? Thyme was used in hospitals for sterilisation and garlic has been used to keep infections at bay. There is an old rule that you should only pick mussels in months with an r in them, this is because the risk of any contamination is less, but it also gives the mussels a chance to breed. So if you really want to pick this time of the year, don’t be greedy, pick for one meal only and cook within 2-3 days. If keeping for longer than
overnight they should come out of the water and just be kept moist by a wet towel in the fridge.
Ebba really enjoyed eating her own mussels and they were really tasty. It was a great day!

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