Mussels are back in season, and I can think of no better way to do them justice that with the classic French Marinière.

Not only is this recipe incredibly tasty, it’s as fast as hell; from chopping board to stuffing your face in 15 minutes flat as long as your mussels are clean. As an added bonus, mussels are pretty cheap, with a kilo coming in at around 5 or 6 pounds.

Lets do this.

Ingredients

1 kilo of mussels

1 stick celery, finely chopped

1/2 large onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

200ml good white wine

Nob of butter

Olive oil

Pinch of salt and pepper

Flat leaf parsley

Method

The only slightly fiddly and time consuming bit about this recipe is cleaning the mussels. If you’re buying from a supermarket they may have been cleaned already (if so, skip the next couple of stages), but if you’ve picked them up at your local fishmonger you may have to do a bit of work yourself.

The things to watch out for are the ‘beard’ on the underside of the mussel, and and any barnacles on the shell. I find the best thing to do is dump the mussels in big bowl / sink of cold water and then get to work. Remove any beards by holding the mussel with the sharper end of the shell pointing towards you, and then pull the beard towards the round end away from you. Any barnacles can be removed by scraping off with a knife.

Whilst you’re doing this, make sure to pick out any mussels that are open. Tap these open ones on a work surface, if they don’t close they are dead and could make you sick if you eat them, so chuck them out. Now your mussels are clean, pop them into an empty bowl and into your fridge.

Next, get a large saucepan (with a lid) on the heat and melt a decent sized nob of butter in a little olive oil. Whilst this is happening, finely chop your celery, onion and garlic. Add these to the pan and gently sweat off for 6 or 7 minutes until translucent.

Now pop your mussels in the pan, discarding any liquid that has drained from them whilst in the fridge (this is water taken on by them when being cleaned – you don’t want this in your pan) and stir them around a bit. Next pour in the white wine, which should immediately start bubbling, season with salt and pepper, and then pop on the lid to steam the mussels for 3 or 4 minutes, occasionally shaking the pan.

When you open the lid, all the mussels have opened, and you’ll be hit by an amazing aroma of the sea and white wine. Scatter over a bit of chopped parsley, and then divide into two bowls, equally distributing both the musels and the fragrant broth.

Serve with a spinach, watercress, rocket and kohlrabi salad with a punchy mustard, lemon juice and olive oil dressing, and lots of crusty French bread.

Bon appétit.

My day job takes me in to central London each day, and whilst I’m spoiled for choice for places to get lunch, I tire of giving the Prets and Eats my cash every day.  That being the case, a year or so ago my old work partner and I set ourselves on a bit of a mission to find some alternatives to the standard fayre, the results of which you can find on this map. I’ll be posting about some of the names on the list in the not too distant future, but first up I want to talk about Benito’s Hat.

No longer the preserve of stoned Californian students, the burrito has made it’s way to the UK (well London at least) and seems to be growing in popularity. I used to get my fix from an imaginatively named place called ‘El Burrito’ which promoted itself with a young Mexican kid dressed as a donkey (burrito means ‘little donkey’ in Mexican) handing out flyers, and then Benito’s Hat opened across the street. I think I went in there on the day it opened, and I’ve never darkened the donkey’s doorway since.

Based on Goodge Street, Benito’s hat has been open for a little over a year, and pretty much every lunchtime has a queue out of the door. It’s not hard to see why. The food is fresh, tasty and fast, and if you leave out the sour cream and cheese, probably not that unhealthy.

I’m a bit of a creature of habit, and always opt for a burrito with pork, black beans, hot sauce and guacamole (which costs an extra 50p – my only complaint). Once unwrapped from the foil, you know you’re in the presence of greatness. The tortillas are as soft and as warm as (I apologise for this analogy) a baby’s bum. Taking a bite you immediately get a hit of the seriously tasty stewed pork. Very similar to a ‘carnitas’ burrito you’d get in the states, the meat is intensely flavoured with lime, cinnamon, oregano and pepper black pepper. Then you taste the beans, then the heat of the chili sauce, before being soothed by the cool of the salad and guaca. The flavours are big and bold. It’s a seriously tasty and satisfying lunch.

I’ve tried other things on the menu, they’re all good, and would easily rival anything that you’d get in the Mission area of San Francisco, but I’m not sure that I’ve really done the experience justice here , so do yourself a favour if you’re in the ‘hood and eat like a Mexican this lunch time.