Jono & Jules do food & wine

Inspired by a recent trip to Paris by Jules where she had to take shelter in a random place to get out of the rain and they served a delicious moules à la crème. A little bit more effort than Moules Marinière but very much worth it.

Wine Suggestion: Overlooked within Muscadet are certain vineyards and wines that stand out as having something extraordinary to them. Les Clos du Montys Muscadet by Jérémie Huchet  is grown on a very special spot with unique soils that give this wine an extra fleshiness and body compared to other Muscadet which enables the wine to stand up to the extra level of richness of the Crème.

Moules à la crème – serves 2 or 4 as a starter

• 1kg mussels (or more if you like), cleaned and debearded (chuck any that won’t close when you give them a sharp tap)
• 20g butter
• 3 shallots, thinly sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 bay leaves and a few sprigs of thyme tied together to make a bouquet garni
• 300ml white wine
• 200ml crème fraîche
• 2 egg yolks
• parsley, finely chopped

Warm the buttter in a large saucepan over a gentle heat. Add the shallot and garlic and cook gently for 5 minutes. Add the white wine, bouquet garni and some black pepper. Turn the heat up and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the mussels to the pan, stir and clamp on a tight fitting lid. Cook for 2 minutes, then stir, replace the lid and cook for another 2 minutes. The mussels are ready when they have all opened – chuck any that stay closed.

Remove the pan from the heat and scoop out the mussels with a slotted spoon into a bowl.

Return the pan to the heat and boil the stock for 5 minutes. Put a fine sieve over a clean bowl and strain the stock into the bowl. Rinse the saucepan, then pour in the strained stock. Heat to a gentle simmer.

Whisk the crème fraîche and egg yolks together in a bowl. Whisk in a couple of ladles of the stock and then pour into the simmer stock, stirring continuously.

Keep gently warming the sauce and stirring until the sauce thickens slightly, then return the mussels to the pan and warm through briefly. Add the parsley and serve in warm bowls with lots of crusty bread.

(Original recipe from Lickedspoon with Debora Robertson, Substack, 2 Feb 2025.)