Many of you may not know that Belgium has a lot of great things: chocolate, beers, (french) fries, and Le Monsieur even think the meat in Belgium tastes better (heard of “Blanc Bleu Belge” or “Belgium Blue“?)  While we were living in Paris, once for a while we went to Brussels to visit my in-laws and those were the things we would usually stock up.

Belgian National Day is on July 21st, Moules Frites are requested as Sunday lunch. If translated directly, “Moules Frites” means “fried mussels”, but it’s actually “mussels and French fries”. It’s a classic dish of Belgium and the north of France, kind of comfort food. Lots of people think it’s originated from France. Actually it’s highly likely that the Belgians were the first to put these two foods together, since Belgium farmers are the first to grow potatoes after they were introduced to Europe from the New World, and mussels, on the other hand, are abundant around Flemish coast in Belgium*. The potato fries are a national food in Belgium. Belgians eat fries so often at home that almost every household has an electric fryer, most people don’t cut potatoes and make fries from scratch. The frozen pre-cooked fries are actually very good there, and you can find fries almost anywhere across the country. The best ones are from friteries (snack spots that specialized in fries) like Maison Antoine. Once your’ve tried one of them, you will wonder why the fries are ever called French.:-)

For mussels, the most common recipe is “Moules à la Marinière”, that is cooked in a white wine sauce with a base of shallots and garlic fried in butter. No complicated techniques are involved. I’m not looking for being authentic, my home cooked version won’t be the same as I would have in a Belgian restaurant, since the mussels I found in the US are not the same kind, but hopefully not less tasty. Anyway it’s not considered a home dish in Belgium. Rarely we make it at home.

These Penne Cove mussels (Mytilus trossulus) from Coupeville, Washington, are different than Blue Mussels (Mytilus edulis) that we found in Belgium. These are smaller, the meat is whitish rather than yellow, also the shells are more fragile.

A little bit of prep work is needed before cooking the mussels: pull off any beards, and scrub them really well, rinse under cold water until no significant black bits can be seen in the washed water.

Only two kinds of herbs, thyme and bay leaves, are used in this recipe since we don’t want anything to overpower the flavor of the mussels. Also I ran out of garlic, so added 3 cloves if you have some on hand.

Sauté onion and celery for about 5 minutes. We don’t want to brown the vegetables, just let them sweat a little bit. If you want more creaminess of the sauce, use half stick of butter (2oz) instead of olive oil.

Don’t add any water, we are essentially using the white wine to start the steaming process. While mussels are cooking, a lot of their juice will be released. Cook until all the mussels are opened. If a few won’t open at the end, discard those.

Serve with French fries and cold Belgian beer!

(Sorry for the curly fries, my food processor did that.:-)

*Source: A national obsession: Belgium’s Moules Frites, SAVEUR.