This is a special occasion sauce; rich and indulgent, it tastes like the sea smells; like the first lung full of holiday-by-the-sea air.
I serve this poured over a hunk of pristine white cod along with a smattering of the mussels… a few still in their shells. By sheer fluke it’s also a pleasing shade of mussel-orange, a result of the reduced wine and the butter rather than the juice from the mussels. It’s accompanied by spinach and Dauphinoise potato, although a plainer potato dish would do just as well.
Using the liquor created from steaming mussels and a concentrated reduction of wine, it’s brought together with a generous emulsion of butter, mixed with the minimum of flour. It’s both mineral and grassy at the same time and has the same silky appeal as the beurre blancs and the hollandaises of this world.
It’s a simple, well-behaved sauce, unlike its peers which can be unstable and high maintenance. You could make it in advance and it freezes well; the mussels too will freeze once cooked.
Ingredients
(Serves 6)
1 kg live mussels
500ml of good quality white wine
140g softened butter
4 x teaspoons plain flour
Put 400ml of the wine in a saucepan and simmer until reduced to 125ml. In the meantime…
Wash the mussels thoroughly in cold water and discard any that haven’t closed completely or are broken. Repeat if necessary and drain in a colander.
Work the flour into the butter in a small bowl using the back of a spoon, until you have a smooth paste. Set to one side.
Heat 100ml of the wine along with 100ml of water in a large pan – one that has a properly fitting lid. Once the liquid is steaming hot add the mussels and whack the lid on pronto. Leave them to steam for 3 – 4 minutes, giving the pan a brief shake. Meanwhile wash out the colander and set it over a large bowl.
Check the mussels have opened and tip them into the colander, reserving the liquor for the sauce. Set the mussels to one side and pour the cooking liquor into the pan with the reduced wine, being careful not to pour in the gritty sediment at the bottom of the bowl (alternatively, you can pour the whole lot through muslin without a care in the world).
Once the liquid is back up to a simmer, add the butter in spoonfuls whisking in thoroughly after each addition. Once all the butter is added, simmer the sauce gently for a further 5 minutes to thicken and taste for seasoning.
Remove the mussel meat from the shells, leaving two or three per person in their shells for decoration. If using the sauce straight away add them now, otherwise cool separately and refrigerate as soon as possible.