This recipe is inspired by my father’s range of beers called Paolozzi made by The Edinburgh Beer Factory.
It is really Italian in all its flavours and I’m sure he would have loved it. Beer and mussels go really well together and so does crusty bread so I combined them all together. Mussels are cheap and sustainable, plus they cook in minutes. This recipe is perfect as a starter or light supper. And of course it’s perfect with beer.
If you fancy it with chips there are a couple of recipes on my blog for for easy fries too: healthy matchstick fries and the perfect roasted fries.
Recipe:
Serves 2-4.
Ingredients:
I bag of mussels (about 2 pounds)
2 shallots finely sliced
1 garlic clove
A sprig of parsley
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup of beer and little bit more for later
Olive oil
Sourdough bread
Salt and pepper to taste
Ingredients for Gremolada:
1 garlic clove (minced)
A sprig of parsley (chopped)
1 Lemon
How:
Heat the oven to 200°c.
Roast a few slices of the bread drizzled in olive and sprinkled with a bit of salt till very golden and dry. Then whizz through a food processor until chunky crumbs, set aside.
To make the Gremolada: zest the lemon into a bowl. Very finely grate the garlic and very finely chop the sprig of parsley and mix in with the bread crumbs and the lemon zest.
Next clean the mussels removing any of the beards and throwing away the open ones. If they don’t shut when tapped they are not edible.
Heat a splash of olive oil in a large pan and fry the shallots for five minutes. Add the bay leaf, the chopped parsley, the minced garlic, some pepper, it won’t need salt, then the beer and stir.
Now add the mussels and on quite a high heat, cook with the lid on for about 3 minutes or until the mussels are all open. Lift the mussels out of the liquid with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and rapidly reduce the cooking liquid by half. Then add a splash of more beer.
Place the mussels in a serving bowl or bowls and pour the juices from the pan all over them. Sprinkle liberally with the breadcrumb mixture and serve immediately.
I shop at:
Waitrose
Sainsbury’s
Tesco
Lidl
