top of page

Creamy Mussels with Leeks and Bacon

If you haven't guessed from my other recipes I do love a bit of seafood and mussels are one of my favourites, they are just so quick and simple to make. This recipe has a few main elements from the Leek and Bacon Gnocchi and I like having a few recipes with the same base ingredients but taste so vastly different as it saves a bit of money and means I don't waste anything.

​

Cleaning the mussels is probably the only scary bit of this meal as you hear all sorts of scare stories about bad mussels. It's actually pretty easy just make sure you follow the steps below and you'll be fine.

Ingredients

​Serves 2

​

  • 1kg fresh mussels

  • 2 tbsp olive oil

  • 1 large leek

  • 6 rashers smoked streaky bacon

  • 50ml double cream

  • 250ml dry cider

  • 1½ tbsp chopped fresh tarragon

Method

First thing you need to do is clean the mussels, they live surrounded by mud in the water so it's worth giving them a good scrub even if you get some that have been precleaned. To do this just run them individually under cold water while giving the shells a scrub with a cloth or soft scouring pad (a nail brush works really well too). You don't want to scratch them up too much as the shells are fairly delicate. Whilst you are doing this pull out any fibres (beards) from the opening in the shell, they can be quite tough to do so give it a good pull.

​

To check for any bad ones give any open ones a firm tap or two on the work surface, if they start to close they are good. If any remain open they are probably bad so just discard them. A kilo is a lot of mussels so losing a couple is better then a bad belly.

​

Now slice the bacon into strips about 1cm wide and then do the same with the leeks slicing across slightly thinner than the bacon. Chop your tarragon roughly and you can start to pull it all together.

​

In your largest pan pour in the olive oil then heat it up before adding in the bacon strips. Cook these on a medium heat for 5 mins until they start to crisp then turn it down and throw in the leeks. Sweat these off together for another 5 mins.

 

Once the leeks are soft pour in the cider and bring it up to a simmer. Then just throw in the mussels and tarragon and with a lid on simmer these for 3 mins. That is all the mussels will take to cook, too much more and they will just start getting chewy.

​

With a slotted spoon now lift the mussels out of the pan into a large serving dish, leaving as much of the cider and juice in the pan as you can. I do this so as not to break up the shells when making the sauce as no one wants crunchy bits of shell all through it. Return the pan to the heat and once it's bubbling pour in the cream, season with salt and pepper and mix it through for a minute or so until it's heated up.

​

As easy as that, now pour the sauce over the mussels, grab some nice crusty bread and enjoy!

​

bottom of page