Mussels in cream and garlic

Over 2000 miles of coastline means mussels are aplenty everywhere in Ireland and mussel farming was actually invented by an Irishman, the bouchot method which is commonly used in France.

Mussels are extremely easy to cook, the time and effort is in preparing the mussels before cooking.

They can be a starter or a main depending on the amount of mussels you use and appetite. 

Before cooking:

Throw away any mussels with damaged shells or open ones. If they do not close after being tapped they are dead and can't be used.

Clean the mussels by putting under running cold water and and scrub the shells with a hard brush. Leave them to soak for half an hour to remove any remaining sand and run again under water.

Use a knife to remove any beards/fibre attached to them.

What you need:

1 kg of mussels

2 garlic cloves

2 shallots finely chopped 

40 grams Irish butter

120ml double cream

Salt and pepper

Parsley to garnish

Soda bread to serve

What you do:

• In a large pot on a low heat add the garlic and shallots with the butter. Soften for 5 mins.
• Add the mussels, turn up the heat and cover. The mussels will cook in the steam from their own juices. Shake the pan every now and then. The mussels should cook in about 5 mins or less. They will be open.
• Remove from heat and season to taste, add cream and parsley and shake or stir.
• Garnish with some fresh parsley and serve with soda bread.

The step of cleaning the mussels is the longest. There is a quicker way I use now and it makes it super quick and even easier without compromising on flavour or quality.

Every supermarket has mussels already prepared in bags which you just boil for few minutes. Some are even flavoured already so there is very little work involved and make nearly as quick as cereal.

One that I get a lot is the garlic butter mussels and after boiling in bag for 5 mins, I return to the dry pot and add the parsley and cream and stir. Ready to serve.

Soda bread from Sainsbury's supermarket

Sometimes you want soda bread cut you haven't got the time to make it. So what do you do? Better to have some soda bread than none. Well in this case perhaps not. This was first time I tried this product and to be honest was not impressed at all. I prefer to eat soda bread just with some good quality butter and the bread crumbled very easily (perhaps why they suggest toasting it), the taste was absent and it did not resemble soda bread I have been used to. If this is the new improved recipe I would hate to have tasted what came before.
Only a pound to buy but will not be buying again even if desperate.

Champ - mash with spring onions (scallions)

This dish is an extremely simple side dish originally from Northern Ireland (where nettle tops, parsley or peas are sometimes added) and has the most amazing name guaranteed to get children excited about their dinner. Also known as poundies.
Closely related to the more famous colcannon.

"There was an old women who lived in a lamp,
She had no room to beetle her champ"


1Kg peeled potatoes cut in half
10 spring onions
200ml full fat milk
Salt/pepper
300g butter

• Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add potatoes, bring back to boil and simmer for 20 mins.
• You will know when they are done when you stick a knife through one and it slides off back into the pot
• Drain into a colander and let steam for few minutes to reduce the water on them.
• Return to the dry pot and start mashing. The more you mash the smoother it will be. Traditionally a wooden masher named a beetle was used (see rhyme above)
• In a separate pot heat milk and add chopped scallions (the more the better I say, start with 2 cups chopped). Let them simmer for a few minutes but make sure they stay green.
• Add butter 200g to the mixture then add all of this to the pot with the mashed potatoes and fold well. Season with generous salt and pepper pinches.
• Serve in a bowl with a well in the middle to add the remaining butter to melt and form a pool at the centre.

I had champ with kotlet z indyka (similar to turkey escalope) Champ should be like a firm mash but I added a lot more milk to make it runnier and therefore didn't need a sauce.

Guinness -1 stout to rule them all

I remember as child looking at my fathers pint of Guinness and thinking the cream on top must taste nice. How could it not? My dad finally gave in to my incessant pleas over a period of weeks and as a 9 year old I had my first taste in the Coat and Badge pub in Putney......disgusting! I never asked again for a long time.

Headfort Arms, Kells Co. Meath

They say its better tasting in Ireland. I cant taste the difference than London to be honest.

Of course the bitter taste with a tang has to be acquired over a period of time. Often I see adults who have never tasted it before make the same face I did many years ago to which the usual next sentence is "do you want some blackcurrant in it?", the so called 'Guinness and black'.

However, in my twenties I was fully adapted and appreciative of the flavour and would often switch over to Guinness in the winter months from my preferred lager for the warming illusion during the dark nights. The other times I would immediately choose the stout over lager would be weddings or funerals. Bound to be all day drinking affairs for some reason I always seem to be able to be able to not get as drunk on it compared with the same amount of lager. Perhaps its a mental thing or that Guinness is seen as a richer drink so its like you are eating at the same time but the other great benefit is draught Guinness has very little CO2 and is mostly nitrogen. The bubbly CO2 that makes you burp won't stop you from downing pints when you have to at the numerous toasts and times you need to catch up in the round with everybody else before the next is bought.

Guinness is not the only stout available, Murphys' for example is nicer in my opinion, but the exceptional businessmen the Guinness family were (Arthur Guinness managed to make a deal for a 9000 year lease at only £45 a year for the brewery in Dublin) and the outstanding marketing strategies employed by the company have made the brand synonymous with Ireland.

As a student I started working in pubs and when Paddys day came around I was always amazed with the free merchandise sent out for punters to collect, the most iconic probably being the tall foam Guinness hat that was a must get by the end of the night. I was especially impressed one year by miniature violins which played Irish tunes when you pluck the strings. I took a massive inflatable pint of Guinness to New York for Paddys and was mobbed by everybody like it was a celebrity.
In fact owning St. Patricks' day wasn't enough as the company started promoting Arthur Guinness day which is basically a second Paddys' day 6 months after (or before) and it is gaining more and more momentum year after year.

Grab as much Guinness memorabilia as you can. 

See also:

How to pour the perfect pint of Guinness

Baby Guinness shot

Steak and Guinness pie recipe

Black and tan drink