What you’ll Need

- 500g of fresh mussels, preferably pre-cleaned and vacuum packed
- Dash of bottled lemon juice
- 2 x Asiatique Butter cubes
- 1 litre of boiling water
- 2 x chicken stock cubes (i use an organic brand, which is similar in price to normal ones, but is absolutely outstanding, is the closest thing to fresh “bouillon” and is called KALLO)
- Salt & Pepper

Method of preparation and cooking

Take the mussels and discard any that have opened before cooking and check that all barnacles and beards have been removed from the mussels Then pour the 1 litre of boiling water from the kettle, into a good sized pan and crumble in the chicken stock cubes and stir until dissolved (if you have trusted my “professional judgement" have a good sniff of the stock, to see what I mean about the quality of the organic brand quoted above) Next stir in the Asiatique butter cubes into the stock, with a shake of salt and pepper, bring to the boil and leave to simmer on a low heat for thirty minutes( giving you time to have a shower or prepare for the arrival of your guests) Once the stock/sauce has been reduced to half of its original size, add the mussels and bring to the boil for no more than 5-6 minutes Place in a bowl and then pour some of the reduced liqueur evenly over the mussels to leave a soup like sauce in the bottom, this allows for the time old tradition of a good dunking session with some bread, once the mussels have been munched up!

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