BELGIAN MUSSELS AND CHIPS

Probably the national dish of Belgium!

Prepare 1 to 1½ kg of mussels in their shells per person and at least ¼ kg of potatoes per person for the chips.

Put a first serving of mussels in a large cooking pan on a high heat, together with ½ an onion (finely chopped), ½ a glass of white wine, salt and pepper. Bring to the boil

While this cooks fry the other ½ an onion, again finely chopped, and a similar amount of chopped celery.

Once the mussels have all opened, remove them to a hot table serving dish, pour over the fried onion and celery mixture and keep them warm while you make the sauce.

Strain the cooking liquid from the mussels.

Melt 100 gm of butter in a pan over a low heat and stir in a similar amount of plain flour. To this add and stir in enough of the mussel cooking liquid to produce a smooth creamy sauce.

To this add plenty of finely chopped parsley, a small onion and 4 finely chopped gerkins. Simmer this sauce for about 1 minute.

 In the mean time deep fry the chips in the usual way in large amounts.

Serve the mussels, chips and a bowl of sauce to the table.

The mussels should be extracted from their shells with a fork, dipped in the sauce and eaten one at a time with the chips.

 While the diners are consuming the first batch of mussels, the cook will have time to prepare the second and subsequent helpings of mussels, chips and sauce.

If you have any good sea food recipes and you would like to share them with the stunningly massive readership of this website, do please send them in.

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