Mussels steamed in coconut milk with lime and coriander

Serves 6 as a starter or 3 as a main course

You will need:

• 1 onion, finely chopped • 3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed • 2 red or green chillies, deseeded and chopped • 400g tin of coconut milk • 1.5kg mussels, scrubbed • 2-3 tablespoons Thai fish sauce • Juice of 1 lime • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander

1 Put the finely chopped onion in a large, wide saucepan with the crushed garlic, the chopped chillies and the tinned coconut milk. Bring to the boil, and cook for about 8-10 minutes, or until the onions are tender.

2 While the onions are cooking, check that all the mussels are tightly closed. If one is open, tap it, and if it closes, it’s good, so keep it. If any mussels stay open, throw those ones out, since that means they’re dead, and you don’t know how fresh they are.

3 When the onions are cooked in the saucepan, tip in all the good mussels, put the lid on the saucepan, and cook until the mussels are wide open.

4 Add in the Thai fish sauce, the lime juice and the chopped fresh coriander. Mix everything together and taste for seasoning, adding more fish sauce if necessary.

5 Serve the mussels in their shells with the coconut milk broth.