Mussels in Doom Bar beer sauce recipe
Recipe by Joe Simmonds, head chef at The Beach Hotel, Bude thebeachatbude.co.uk
Ingredients
- 2 kg Cornish mussels
- 300 ml Doom Bar or a bitter ale of your choice
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp chopped curly parsley
- 1 tbsp tarragon
- 2 cloves of garlic, lightly crushed
- 1 carrot, finely diced
- 2 banana shallots, finely diced
- 1 stick of celery, finely diced
- 1 bay leaf
Details
- Cuisine: British
- Recipe Type: Main
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 5 mins
- Cooking Time: 20 mins
- Serves: 4
Step-by-step
1) In a large pan add 50g of your butter, melt until foaming then turn onto a gentle heat. Add your garlic (by lightly crushed I mean use the palm of your hand or something weighty and leave in skin on, we just want a lovely light aroma going through the sauce), add the bay, carrots, shallots and celery and stir for around 10 minutes until slightly softened and opaque.
2) Add the ale and then remove from the pan and leave to cool and infuse.
3) Wash your mussels in cold water, discard any that are cracked or do not shut when tapped.
4) Heat a large saucepan on a high heat (to test the pan is hot enough flick a tiny bit of water into it; if the water bounces around before evaporating your pan is hot enough). Add the mussels, pour over the ale and put a lid on, shaking occasionally. The mussels will take 3-4 minutes to open. Once open they are ready! Strain into a colander over another pan.
5) Put the liquor back on the heat and reduce by around a third. This should take around 5 minutes.
6) Whisk in the remaining butter and herbs, taste and check for seasoning before adding the mussels back into the pan.
7) Serve with crusty bread and enjoy.
Chef’s note: If you’re sceptical about the amount of butter you can substitute the last 150g for low fat crème fraiche.
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