Mussels in white wine soup
Ingredients:
- Mussels (500g for this recipe)
- Cheap white wine or cooking wine
- Bouquet garni - either pre-packaged, or make your own
- Bay leaf - 1 leaf per 500g mussels
- Dried ikan bilis to make fish stock; or, just use the dried cubes
The method:
- First, discard any mussels that smell bad, or are not opening
- Pull out the threads and scrub the mussels if needed
- Soak them in water for 1 hour or more
- Drain the water, then soak again for a few more minutes. If you're a cleanliness freak like me, you could do this cycle for many many many times.
- Prepare a pot, add 500 mls of water, throw in a handful of dried ikan bilis and boil for at least 20 minutes. Or, just do it the simple way and use fish stock cubes.
- Sieve and remove the ikan bilis from the stock, then add bouquet garni and bay leaf, and leave to simmer for a further 15 minutes.
- Add 250-750mls of white wine (depending on how drunk you want it to taste)
Now, there are 2 methods of preparing the next step, depending on whether you want the soup to be good, or the mussels to be good.
- Add the whole lot of mussels into the stock, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes. OR
- Steam the mussels separately for 15 minutes, then add to the stock. Remove the whole pot from heat, and leave to stand for 15 minutes so that the mussels soak up the flavour.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Finally, add just the pinch of corn starch to some hot water, stir and add into the finished soup and stir well. Remove the bouquet garni and bay leaf from the soup.
- The dish can be served on its own, or with an accompanying dip made of the juice of half a lemon, 3 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon of sugar and a small pinch of salt.
