Mouclade is a French word which comes from the word mussel and it refers to a dish made with these little sea treasures. This mussel mouclade recipe is a specialty of the Poitou-Charentes region, but other coastal regions have their own variations.
Use the finest mussels you can find for this tasty regional dish. Allow about ½ lb. (250 g) of mussels per person for an appetizer.
SERVES 4
Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS
2 lb. (1 kg) mussels
2 shallots
A few sprigs flat-leaf parsley
6 tablespoons (90 g) unsalted butter
Scant ½ cup (100 ml) dry white wine
⅓ cup (80 ml) heavy cream
2 teaspoons (10 g) curry powder
Freshly ground pepper
METHOD
Scrape off the dirt from the mussels and remove the beards. Finely slice the shallots and chop the parsley. Sweat the shallots in 3 ½ tablespoons (50g) butter and then pour in the white wine.
Add the mussels and half the chopped parsley.
Cover and cook over high heat, stirring regularly.
Check that all the mussels are open, discarding any that aren’t, and transfer them to a dish with a slotted spoon.
Filter the cooking liquid to remove any traces of sand. Reduce it by half. Add the cream and reduce further, until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Whisk in the remaining butter.
Sprinkle half the curry powder into the sauce and leave it to infuse. Season with pepper.
Serve the mussels on the half shell (remove one half of each shell) and arrange them all in a serving dish or in soup plates.
Sprinkle the remaining the parsley over the dishes, and pour over the hot sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining curry powder.
Delicious with french fried or baguette – perfect for mopping up the sauce with!
Extracted from The Complete Book of French Cooking by Hubert Delorme and Vincent Boué (Flammarion, 2023). Photo credit: © Clay McLachlan
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