Moules au Roquefort
The first time I made the road trip from Berlin to the UK, my wife and I did a little detour and stayed in Reims for a few days. I had always wanted to stop in the Champagne capital of France and visit a few Champagne houses and sample some of the famous bubbly!
We found a cute pension in the town centre and had a couple of days of France. Apart from sampling a few Champagnes we found a great restaurant that specialised in mussels or moules as they call them. Now I hadn’t had moules for a few years. My Dad used to cook them at home as he had picked up the recipe from a week long course he took in Normandy, and for me, his were the best I had ever tasted. The sauce or soup he made tasted so good, but of course I’m sure he kept the cost down on being a bit careful with how many mussels he bought. Anyway, this mussel restaurant called the Grand Café did about 13 or so different mussel variations, but as always I went for the traditional moules marinière, without the cream. Our meal that night was Champagne as an aperitif then a starter of a dozen snails and at this point we started on the Muscadet. Then we both had moules followed by creme brûlée and Armagnac with espressos! Wonderful!
On our last trip to the UK this summer, we stopped over in Calais and moules are in every Bistro or Brasserie, so we sat ourselves down and I ordered my moules marinière, but my wife ordered the moules au Roquefort. I tried them but weren’t convinced, however, she rated them highly and last weeke when I decided it was time we had mussels at home, she ordered Moules au Roquefort! I delivered and they were awesome. So good in fact that they will be cooked up again this weekend!
Now down to the recipe. I’m really excited writing this because I know that you will really love this!
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 3-4kg fresh, live mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded
- 100g butter
- 2 shallots, finely chopped
- 500ml dry white wine, (I use Muscadet)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- A good bunch of flat leafed parsley, finely chopped
- 20ml Pernod or Noilly Prat
For the Roquefort sauce:
- 120g butter
- Crushed black pepper to taste
- 250g Roquefort, but you can use other blue cheeses if you wish
- 250g crème fraîche
Preparation method:
In a very big pot melt the butter over a medium heat and when melted add the shallots and cook for a couple of minutes until golden, then add the wine and crank up the heat bringing it to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste and the shot of Pernod/Noilly and a handful of chopped parsley.
Dump in the mussels and slap the lid on the pot. Leave for about 10 minutes by then the mussels should have all opened. Give the pot a good couple of shakes.
For the Roquefort sauce:
As soon as you have put the mussels in, melt the butter for the sauce in another pot or pan, add the crème fraîche and stir in, then crumble in the Roquefort and stir that in until you have a smooth sauce.
Now remove the sauce from the heat and by this time your mussels should be cooked, about 10 minutes. Drain the mussels through a colander over a large pot as you will need the liquid. Put the mussels back in the original pot. Put the Roquefort sauce back on the heat and start adding the liquid from the mussels. You can use as much or as little of this as you want depending on how thick you want the sauce to be. Once you are happy with your sauce, pour over the mussels, give the mussels a good couple of shakes to make sure they are all nicely coated in the sauce then sprinkle some parsley over the top.
You can serve from the pot or tip out into a large serving bowl and serve with a couple of nice fresh baguettes or some country bread to mop up the liquid.
Enjoy!