Pale Ale Mussels

Serves 2 Prep time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon of soft butter 1 small onion 2 bacon rashers 2 sprigs of fresh thyme 3 garlic cloves 150ml pale ale, plus more to serve 1kg mussels More fresh thyme or parsley Sourdough bread to serve

METHOD

1. Start by scrubbing and debearding your mussels. Discard any mussels that have opened already. They are dead and aren’t safe to eat. Debearding (a delightful phrase) means to remove the beard-like threads that the mussels can grow. Set the mussels aside until ready to use.

2. Heat the butter in a large pot with a lid over a medium to high heat. Finely dice the onion and roughly chop the bacon. Add the onion, bacon and whole thyme sprigs to the butter and cook gently for about 10 minutes until the onion is translucent.

3. Finely dice the garlic cloves and add to the onion and bacon. Fry for a further couple of minutes until you can smell the garlic starting to cook.

4. Add the pale ale to the pot and bring to a simmer. Increase the heat if needed. Now add the mussels to the pot. Place the lid on the pot and cook for about five to eight minutes, shaking the pot from time to time. Cook until most of the mussels have opened up. Remove from the heat and discard any mussels that haven’t opened.

5. Serve the mussels with the pale ale broth and some fresh thyme or parsley sprinkled on top and some toasted sourdough on the side.

6. As an alternative to sourdough, you could make a batch of your own homemade chips. Slice a few potatoes into chip wedges, parboil them for a couple of minutes and then finish them off by roasting in the oven or deep-frying them. Serve with plenty of salt and pepper.