In season or not in season? You decide...

First of all, slapped wrists for me for cooking a meal that isn’t strictly speaking in season. However, I did find fresh, live mussels at Fenwicks fish counter so they were there! They wanted me to eat them! Honest! (STOP PRESS, Fenwicks in Newcastle is getting a Yo! Sushi bar – very excited).

I absolutely love mussels. Gone are the days when I used to scream if my mum showed me one or tried to make me eat one, usually out of a polysterene cup on a seafront in Yorkshire somewhere! I hated the look of them but now I think they’re really beautiful with their blue black shells and the gorgeous, frilly, peachy yellow flesh nestling inside.

I’ve recently taken to eating bacon again and I have noticed over the years that on many a restaurant menu they combine mussels with bacon so I thought I’d have a go at concocting something with both ingredients. It occurs to me as I write this that pancetta would also be good. And then I saw a lovely fat bulb of fennel in the greengrocers which was begging to be sliced up and roasted. So this little beauty is what I came up with.

Mussels with roasted fennel and crispy bacon

Serves two

200g of live mussels, cleaned and debearded
1 bulb of fennel, sliced and with tops chopped for sprinkling
2 medium white onions
1 mug of fresh chicken stock
175ml white wine
Handful of chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
150ml single cream
2 slices of good quality smoked back bacon
Salt & pepper
A knob of butter
Olive oil


Slice the fennel and place on a baking tray. Season, drizzle with olive oil and roast in a medium oven (150 c) for about 45 mins until squishy and slightly frazzled at edges.

In a frying pan, place the snipped up bacon and fry gently until crispy but not burnt (a fine balance, don’t leave alone!) Set aside in a bowl.

Slice the onions and sauté in a pan (one big enough to hold everything else too) with a knob of butter and some olive oil (about 1 dessert spoon) until squishy and a sort of light caramel colour. Tear up the fennel and add in. Add a mug of chicken stock and a glass of decent white wine. Bring to a simmer.

Add the mussels and shake around in the juices. Put the lid on the pan and leave for 4 mins shaking every so often.

After 1 min, pour in the cream and place lid back on for a further minute.

Take off of the heat, add the parsley, chopped fennel tops and bacon. Stir and serve in deep bowls with plenty of the broth. Serve with garlic bread, a smile and the rest of the wine.

Comments

[Carli]

oh.my.god. i love you!

[michelle]

This sounds lovely - I will try tonight!

[sarah]

thank you girls! I heard on radio 4 that the British mussel season is about to start again - September I think, so I must come up with more recipes for these fat little beauties!