Pulling Mussels From A Shell and Eating Them with Chips
Plus all the good things I ate and cooked this month...
Hi folks! Most of summer has been the definition of a damp squib, and I’m sure I’ve not been alone in feeling short changed, and actually quite resentful towards the sky. Luckily the sun has finally got his hat on and is offering a morsel of the vitamin D we crave, so here is a holiday dinner recipe for you that’s easy and celebratory but still inexpensive. It’s Mussels and Chips! Further down, I’m talking through some of the best places I’ve eaten recently, and sharing some baking highs that have helped light up an otherwise inferior August.
Just in case you missed it, I very much enjoyed writing The Hater column this week for Vittles, on why HelloFresh and Gousto give me the creeps. You can read it here if you like. Thanks to Jonathan Nunn!
To the recipe. Until recently, I had never really been a mussel person. It’s not because they’re hard work – prawns and clams both get me going, and they require the same shell-removal and ceremony to reveal their plump insides. I think it was a textural thing… whatever way you look at it, mussels are just not quite as satisfyingly chewy a substance as their other shellfish friends.
But with time and inclination, I have learnt to enjoy the little blighters. Paired with other ingredients that give the molars what they desire such as in this chickpea pasta, or with plenty of pep and flavour as in the recipe below, they make sense to me. Also, any shellfish at £7 a kilo makes sense to me. And I love how easy they are to cook. Everybody knows that adding chips to any dish makes it infinitely more appealing, so that’s what I have done. Happy mussels and chips to you!
Mussels and Chips
1kg mussels
1 red chilli, sliced
3 tbsp coriander leaves, picked
½ white onion or 1 shallot, finely diced
2 tbsp white condiment/agrodolce/verjuice (optional)
150ml white wine
30g butter
2 Cyprus potatoes, peeled and sliced into something resembling fries
400ml oil (I did a mix of sunflower and olive)
Clean the mussels by running them under cold water, and giving them a scrub as best you can. Yank out the beards by pulling them towards the attached end of the mussel, and throw away any broken mussels. Leave them to sit in cold water for a bit (30 minutes-1 hour) before you cook. Drain.
Put the chopped shallot, chilli, white condiment (if using) and wine into a large pan, and bring it to a simmer. Add a pinch of salt and cook over gentle heat for 7 minutes.
Meanwhile, get your sliced fries into a wok or deep pan filled with the cold oil (I had to cook mine in 2 batches.) Allow the chips to heat up in the cold oil and cook until they are golden brown (for about 10 minutes total) turning once or twice. Drain the chips on kitchen paper and finish the second batch straight in the hot oil for efficiency’s sake. (Save your oil, once cool, in a clean jar for using again another time).
While the second batch of chips is cooking, add the mussels to the shallot pot and turn up the heat. Cover the pan with a lid. Cook for 3 minutes until all the mussels have opened up. Add the butter and give the pot a good but gentle tumble about with a large spoon. Add the coriander and give it another toss to mix it through. Serve them up alongside the fries, and garnish with fresh chilli and more coriander leaves. We had a tomato and oregano salad on the side too, since it’s tomato season. Enjoy!
I am extremely lucky that I get to eat out a lot of as part of my job. Here are some highlight mouthfuls of this month.
The pani puri from Masala Zone
Indian snacks are the best snacks, and the new Masala Zone in Piccadilly is a great and grand place to eat some. If I had to be inside any building in Piccadilly, I'd choose this one. For me, their pani puri were spot on for crunch and acidity. I did adore them.
The baked Malabar scallop curry from Benares
Benares is a Mayfair institution that has the distinct feel of New York about its exterior awning, and the distinct air of a boys’ club about its dimmer than dimly-lit dining room. I had never had a scallop curry before I went here, but now I think we all should eat them regularly. Chef Sameer knows what’s up.
The chicken pasta at Grace and Savour
Once, I got cancelled on a Melbourne Facebook group for saying I wanted to put chicken pasta into Room 101… Well blow me down, because the chicken pasta with crispy chicken powder at Grace and Savour (at Hampton Manor) was like essence of chook in a phenomenal way. I have been shown. An honorable mention to the kohlrabi (below right) which was served with a butter sauce and herb oil, and tasted better than most vegetables I’ve eaten.
The cinnamon buns from the bakery at Hampton Manor
The laminated, sweet buns from the bakery headed up by the inimitable Min Go at Hampton Manor took my breath away. They were crunchy and soft and perfectly pull-apart-able.
The mozzarella and peach salad from Tiella at the Compton Arms
Italian food at a pub is wrong. But is it also kind of right? When a peach is ripe and room temperature, life is good, and here they were paired with a supple and saline mozzarella that was truly milky, plus little slivers of red onion and brown anchovy. This was the best of a few great plates cooked by Dara at Tiella. Worth venturing North of the river for.
The best things I've cooked this month
I made Anna Higham's brioche dough and used half of it to make her Stone Fruit Tart recipe. I froze the other half and shaped that into these fruit and custard buns! Oh my god – they rocked. I had never made brioche before, and if I didn’t own a stand-mixer it would be a much more difficult task. But with one, it was really straightforward. I will do it again. The custard in Anna’s recipe is not one you need to cook and only has 3 ingredients, and then you just top the tart/buns with your favourite stone fruits that have been tossed in sugar and lemon. I tried to shape mine like Toad bakery’s sun buns and brushed them with apricot jam and fruit syrup when they came out the oven. I think they were my favourite sweet thing I’ve cooked this year.
At Hampton Manor the aforementioned Min gave us a little 30g portion of her sourdough starter to take home, and it’s fair to say it has changed my life. I realised I was keeping way too much of my own starter in the jar each time I baked. I realised a lot. Anyway, I’ve baked 2 loaves in 3 days because I’m obsessed with Min’s starter and her method. 100g wholemeal, 400g plain flour, 100g young starter, 10g salt, 350g water. Slap and fold a few times then shape and fridge it overnight. No score before the oven. These are truly the best loaves I’ve ever baked. And perhaps that’s not surprising as someone who baked the loaf in its banneton the first time I tried to do it. Thanks Min!
Hope you enjoy the last of your August cookin’, friends. See you next month for a genuinely thrilling guest special recipe.
