Mussels with celery, bacon, cream and cider

Mussels are something I don't remember to eat often enough. Wonderfully rewarding to eat and immensely easy to prepare they deserve cooking far more often. This is s simple way to do them, and Anglo-accented sidestep from the familiar moules marinieres with cream and white wine.

• mussels
• fatty bacon
• celery
• cream
• cider
  

Fry your celery in slices with a little butter then chuck in the bacon. When the meat is browned and the celery softened but not totally surrendered add the mussels (do all the boring prep beforehand bla bla) and a bottle of interesting cider.

 

When the mussels have opened add some cream. Don't go mad. Make sure it's off the heat so it doesn't curdle. Add plenty of black pepper and serve with some bread.

My, that's an easy recipe. Needless to say more cider is advisable for drinking with the food. A little bit of parsley would be nice if you have some to hand but it's far from essential.

We had some amazing smoked trout with lentils to follow.