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Moules Marinière must be one of the greatest seafood dishes of all time. A somewhat simple dish that seemingly consists of just mussels in wine shallots and parsley. This may well be how it originated in Belgium where the dish has reputed to be from.
Although Moules Frites (mussels and chips) are popular the whole world around and have many varied recipes including Indian and Thai curry sauces to those being cooked in cider or beer, the classic Moules Marinière must be the most recognisable and traditional of them all and they would certainly have come from humble beginnings, just like pretty much every great classic recipe ever.
What is Moules Marinière?
Across the Flemish coast and down the western coast of France and even over the channel, mussels have been harvested for years. In Belgium, where Moules Frite is the national dish it was said to have come about when sailors would bring in this haul when not much else was available, especially in winter. These mussels were then cooked or steamed and eaten with potatoes which is another prevalent and cheap food. The simplicity almost certainly comes from the frugal nature too of what was available, but this simplicity has created a classic that we are thankful for. Just a splash of wine, some diced shallots and herbs in a pot and you’re done. Or is it?
Moules Marinière is served in just about every traditional restaurant in France and Belgium, but are all recipes the same? We think not.
Different Moules Marinière recipes
You may be able to relate to this but if you eat dishes like Moules Marinière regularly and in different places over the world you would certainly remember one particular place or at most a limited few places that you would pinpoint as having the best Moules Marinière you have ever tried. This could be due to the fact that they include a secret ingredient, or not! It could mean that it doesn’t include a secret ingredient at all, it could be that the dish was simply prepared with the few original ingredients that this dish (for purists) should contain.
The great thing about food is that everyone eats it, and everyone has their favourites and everyone has their opinions as to what makes those dishes the best.
Moules Marinière is certainly one of those dishes. For example, do you put cream in it? In France particularly, there are very strict rules on how to create certain dishes and many would say that mussels with cream was Moules a la Creme, not Moules Marinière. However many restaurants serving Moules Marinière prepare it with cream, and not just that of course. There are other embellishments however simple or not from the addition of celery or leeks and garlic. Perhaps not what a traditionalist wants to see but these alterations are certainly what breaks down gastro barriers and creates new and exciting fusions of classic foods.
This is exactly what flavourise like to explore. We bring the restaurant experience into your own home with you being chef, waiter and customer all rolled into one.
As taste buds are curious things where one day you can crave your favourite Moules Marinière but the next you couldn’t stand the sight of them. Even though we are creatures of habit and especially when it comes to the food we eat, many of us don’t stray from the beaten path and keep cooking the same old standards whether we understand we want to or not. The ability to be versatile with our food is important, not only for health but for enjoyment too. Those days when you simply just don’t fancy that classic old favourite, just look at it through different eyes and create a new version of it. Give it a fusion of flavours or just add something else you have too much of in the fridge. These little tricks help us to be excited by food but most importantly our own food that we cook in our own kitchens.
The best Marinière recipe
This Moules Marinière recipe has been inspired by not only our own experiences of this wonderful dish around the world but of our own experiences of how to recreate one of our best ever dishes at home. We absolutely love cooking with mussels and have many other favourites too from Mexican-inspired mussels to Moroccan mussels with heavy aromatic herbs and spices to more traditional recipes but when it comes to this classic Moules Marinière dish, our go-to recipe has a few simple embellishments. The fact that we love mussels cooked in so many different ways helped to combine two unique recipes in one. The base, naturally, is the traditional Marinière, but one where the chef said that his secret to a richer sauce was butter and celery, and the other a Moules Farci dish, which is where the mussels are served in their half shells and gratinated with gruyere cheese. This particular version had a creamy spinach sauce. For us, it just made sense to make the two together.
How to make Moules Marinière at home
Making this amazing mussels dish is also very simple, not too dissimilar from its humble origins. First of all, the mussels themselves. 1 kilo of mussels which is often served for one person in a restaurant is a large portion and one we think easily serves two for dinner, especially if you serve it with chips or bread. Fresh mussels will give you a better texture but you must clean them by removing their beards which can be a bit of a hassle. However, you can find pre-cooked mussels all the year around that are vacuum packed either in a cream or garlic sauce or just in their own juices. It is the variety that is found in their own juices that you are looking for as this liquor that they are packed in gives an amazing depth of flavour to your sauce. If you can only find the varieties that come with a sauce, by all means, get these but just rinse all this sauce off the mussels and prepare a fish stock instead of the liquor you would otherwise have gotten from the other pre-cooked mussels.
For the base, either half a white onion or large shallot with a celery stick and some fresh garlic is all that is needed. It is a simple addition from the original but have it in good faith that this is all that is required. Just add a good amount of butter after these vegetables have fried off in a little olive oil.
Choosing the wine
Next, the wine. This has been a tricky one over the years as to what variety is best, and there is after all no perfect answer as everyone would have an opinion as to what is best. Previously we had looked to fuller wines that we thought would impart a richer flavour. However, wines such as deep Chardonnay’s or Viogniers just didn’t pair with the mussels in the way we wanted them to. Sauvignon, we found, was too fruity for the mussels too. Looking to the regions where these original recipes were created could give an answer. The regions, especially in France where mussels are predominantly popular actually offer very little in the way of wine. Normandy for example is known for Calvados and cider. These drinks are also very popularly used in the dishes including mussels in the area but we are looking for wines. The nearest wine-making regions to these coastal areas are further south and east being the Loire and the Alsace regions. These are well known for the drier wines of Muscadet, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Chenin Blanc, all of which we have found to be the ideal wines to cook the mussels in. Drinking the wine and finding pairings for the finished dish is a whole different ball game and one we’ll leave to you to decide upon.
Spinach and gruyere cheese makes this dish
Lastly, for our favourite go-to Moules Marinière dish, we add parsley as in the traditional recipe but we also add spinach and grated gruyere cheese. The gruyere cheese (inspired by the gratinated Moules Farci dish, aka, open gratinated mussels) adds a wonderful salty, umami flavour and the spinach (which we just roughly chop rather than blitzing) adds a fresh vegetative flavour that just works perfectly with the mussels.
All that is left is what to serve it with and there are only two options really, frites! Which can be as simple as oven-cooked or a big chunk of bread. There has to be something unadulterated after all.
More seafood recipes
Buttered Mussels with Cajun Spices
Italian Seafood Stew
Impressive Crab and Shrimp Pasta - Easy + Delicious
Fish Quesadilla (Loaded with Fish and Seafood)
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Moules Marinière recipe
Equipment
- Mussels pot or a large stock pot/hob-proof casserole dish
Ingredients
- 1 kg of fresh cleaned mussels or pre-cooked mussels
- ½ a white onion or large shallot, finely diced
- 1 celery stick, finely diced
- 2 cloves of fresh garlic, finely diced
- 50 g of salted butter
- 250 ml or 1 cup of fish stock or 250ml (1 cup) of the reserved liquid from the pre-cooked mussels
- 250 ml or 1 cup of dry white wine - Preferrably Muscadet
- 250 ml or 1 cup of double cream
- 15 g of fresh chopped parsley
- 100 g of fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 50 g of grated gruyere cheese
Instructions
- Add a dash of olive oil to a mussel pot or a hob proofed casserole dish that has a lid. Put the heat on medium and add the finely diced onion or shallot, celery and garlic and fry for 1 minute.
- Add the butter and stir in until melted to glaze the vegetables (approximately 1 minute).
- Pour in the wine, double cream and stock and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer the sauce to reduce it for 5 minutes.
- Add the mussels, grated gruyere cheese and spinach and stir into the sauce. Place the lid on the mussels and turn the heat up to medium and cook for 3-4 minutes until the mussels are cooked through, diregard any mussels that don’t open.
- Serve with chips or bread.
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