INGREDIENTS SERVING TWO3 kg fresh mussels, three large onions, one branch of celery, one tablespoon of potato flour, pepper, half a cup of water and half a cup of vinegar.
PREPARATION
Put the mussels in a bucket. Cover with cold water and stir briskly with a wooden stick. Scrub and transfer the mussels one by one to another bucket. Make sure to remove the byssus (beard) around the bottom edge and any coral growing on the shell. Discard any mussels that are broken, contain sand or are already open. Wash two more times in cold water.
COOKING INSTRUCTIONS
Use a large kettle to allow for extra space needed when mussels open up and to enable shaking the mussels at the end of the cooking process. Put a layer of mussels in the bottom of the pan. Cover with sliced onions or fairly large chunks of onion and some diced celery. Add pepper to taste (no salt !). Then proceed in the same manner with the next layers, each time covered by onion, celery and pepper, until all the mussels have been used. Put the kettle on a fairly brisk fire. Use the lid, but do leave a section uncovered to observe the mussels during cooking. Dissolve one table spoon of potato flour in a cup of water and vinegar until absolutely smooth. No lumps should remain. When the thin mussel froth rises to the edge of the kettle for the third time, all the mussels will have opened up, and it is time to add the well-stirred mixture of potato flour, water and vinegar. Let the mussels cook for two more minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat, and after two further minutes shake the kettle repeatedly. Spoon large helpings of mussels and liquid into soup plates. When eating use an empty hinged shell instead of a fork to dislodge the mussels from their shells. Discard any mussels that failed to open. Serve with bread or French fries.
ORIGINS
The above simple recipe is the traditional way to prepare mussels as used by the fishermen of Heist (Belgium). The recipe is probably several hundred years old, and stems from a time when onions were just about the only vegetables the usually very poor fishermen had in abundance. No wonder onions also play an important role in most other Belgian fish recipes.
