France and the Alps · Volume 11, Butter, Cider and the Buckwheat Line
Moules à la crème normande
Normandy
Illustration
- Researched
- Researched from 72 sources in the brief
The coast's simplest and most repeated dish, and a direct demonstration of the reduction technique that runs through the rest of the Norman half of this volume.
As tradition built it
Cook 5 to 7 minutes to open the mussels.
Ingredients
- 2 shallots, finely chopped
- 20 g butter
- 25 cl raw cider
- 2 kg mussels
- 40 cl cream, for the creamier version
Method
- Sweat the finely chopped shallots in butter.
- Add the cider and bring to the boil.
- Add the mussels, cover, and cook 5 to 7 minutes until they open.
- For the creamier version, lift the mussels out with a slotted spoon, reduce the cooking liquid hard, then stir in the cream to finish before returning the mussels to coat.
What a modern chef changes
Cut the instant the shells open, and the cider reduced before the cream
Rungs 2 and 3
Method
- Cut the heat the instant, not a few seconds after, roughly 80% of the shells have opened, following the timing rung exactly, and finish the rest with residual heat under the lid rather than continued direct cooking, which is what actually protects the texture.
- Use bouchot mussels specifically, or the nearest genuine UK equivalent, rope-grown Shetland mussels, both grown suspended rather than dredged from the seabed, for the thinner shell and cleaner meat that dredged mussels do not give.
- Reduce the cider separately and hard before the cream goes in, exactly as with poulet vallée d'Auge, rather than reducing the two together.