Les Moules à la Florent

Welcome to Heaven. We were talking about France today, reminiscing about a beautiful dinner under the stars in the courtyard of a friend’s house and… we simply had to put this up.

Confessions of a Mussel (by Florent Jullien)

The quantities presented below are restless. All depends on the amount of mussels desired. For ideal proportions, do as all great cooks: TASTE.

Make provisions for between 4 and 5 cups of mussels per person (mussels from the shellfish bed preferred: more juice, more taste)
A little over 2 cups liquid cream
1 1/3 cup dry white wine
1 bouquet of parsley
1 or 2 garlic cloves
1 or 2 shallots
A little butter

The mussels must be cleaned and scraped with a knife. Time-consuming, but necessary. If in a hurry, use pre-washed mussels.

Scene One: Torture them to make them talk…

Heat an empty casserole large enough to hold the quantity of mussels, and cover it tightly. Once it is hot, pour in the mussels. Leave them for a few minutes; the heat will open them and release their water. Be sure to only pre-cook the mussels, they must be immediately taken off the heat once they’ve started to open. Put them aside in a bowl and pour the remaining juice in a side bowl.

Scene Two: Scald them to “finish em’ off”…

In the empty casserole, prepare the sauce on the stove. Lightly fry the chopped shallots in a bit of butter, without letting them turn brown. Add the white wine, parsley and chopped garlic, then add the cream while continuing to stir. God Save the Wooden Spoon.

Add a portion of the water released from the mussels, and taste (Florent insists) to perfect the dose.

Pour the mussels into the sauce to finish their journey, being careful not to over cook and stirring regularly.

Serve immediately in a large bowl and drown them in sauce.

Accompany with rice or frites, and match these divine creatures with a white wine. Florent suggests: muscadet, macon, anything dry or with a delicate hint of fruit.

Merci, Florent… On pense à toi.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2007 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Consumption. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.