FLOWER POT KITCHEN: MOULES A LA CREME SOUP

4 Sept 2017

MOULES A LA CREME SOUP

This is almost dangerous! Warning keep your spoons locked up! This dish came about by accident, I brought some fresh mussels from our local seafood beach shack for a moules classic French style Sunday lunch, but when I went to clean them there was buckets loads, I guess weighed wrong 2 kg required but ended up with 3 kg! We can eat mussels until their coming out our ears but even that is pushing a portion a bit far!

So mussels two days in a row, not a problem, but the naughty part of me wanted a decedent but light lemon and cream sauce, once my spoon went in that was it I could and would not stop, such a rich and sumptuous little bowl of heaven, the greedy part of me loves all the mussels out of the shell so that my spoon is uninterrupted delivering spoon after spoon of gorgeousness without any delay.

Prep time 10 mins / Cooking time 5 minutes

Ingredients

(Serves 2)

1 kg fresh live mussels

1 onion finely diced

2 cloves garlic finely diced

1 tsp coconut oil

1 tsp coriander chopped

100ml good quality dry white wine

100ml double cream

1/2 lemon juiced

1 pinch black pepper

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 fresh red chilli optional

Heat a saucepan medium heat, add the coconut oil, onions and garlic and cook for five minutes until softened, add the turmeric, black pepper then turn up the heat to medium hot, add the mussels and stir in for a minute or so then add the wine, pop a lid on and leave to steam for around 3 minutes, take the lid off and add the cream and lemon juice, lid back on and shake the pan to mix the cream and wine with the mussels.

Cook for a further minute to heat the cream to simmering, take off the heat, throw in the coriander and chilli, toss once more and serve, this is where I like to take a minute to remove all the hot hot hot mussels from their shells and pop them back in to the sauce so that I can spoon eat. That's it your done, enjoy. I don't eat any grains or starch anymore :-( / :-) (keeps me a small girl not a 23 stone big girl !) but in my past I loved to soak up all the juices with slices of sour dough bread and frites, after the spoon feast. Serve this as is or your own way with lots of fresh bread and a pile of fries for extra dipping.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.