Cooking Notes: about 20min
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- 2 kg (4 1/2lb) fresh mussels
- 50 g (2oz) butter
- 4 large shallots, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 3 tsp. brown sugar
- 2 bay leaves
- 330ml can Guinness or stout
- 50 ml (2 fl oz) double cream
- large bunch parsley, leaves chopped
- soda bread, to serve
- Step 1
Store mussels in an open bag or colander at the bottom of the fridge, covered lightly with damp kitchen paper. Clean mussels in a colander set under running water to rinse off grit. One at a time, tap each mussel sharply on the work surface. Discard any that haven’t closed after 30sec. Pull away beards and scrape off barnacles with a cutlery knife.
- Step 2
Heat butter in a large, deep pan with a tight-fitting lid. Fry shallots gently for 5-10min until softened. Add garlic and brown sugar, stirring for 2min until fragrant and ensuring they don’t catch.
- Step 3
Add bay leaves and Guinness, bring to the boil, turn down and simmer gently for 4min. Add the mussels, then cover and cook on a high heat, shaking the pan vigorously every so often for 5min until they have all just opened.
- Step 4
Immediately remove from the heat, add cream and nearly all the parsley to the pan. Stir, then spoon mussels and cooking liquor into deep serving bowls. Sprinkle with remaining parsley and serve with soda bread to mop up the juices.
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GH Tip
Ask your fishmonger for rope-grown mussels – they are easier to clean than the dredged type and aren’t full of silt.
Per Serving:
- Calories: 523
- Fibre: 1 g
- Total carbs: 5 g
- Sugars: 5 g
- Total fat: 26 g
- Saturated fat: 13 g
- Protein: 62 g
The GH Kitchen Team are Good Housekeeping’s resident recipe developers and all-round food obsessives. GH Kitchen Director Sarah Akhurst is our resident hosting pro and loves nothing more than putting on a foodie feast for friends. Our GH Kitchen Manager Linzi Pucino is our very own Italian food expert (originally hailing from the North East of Scotland!) and can be found working her way through midweek recipes that cover all bases, from haggis to ragu! Our Kitchen Editor Nadine Brown loves digging into the stories behind her favourite foods and enjoys applying her eclectic tastes to more modern, flavour-forward recipes - just don't give her too much chilli! Our Junior Food Content Produce Frankie Prichard combines a love of beautiful presentation and flavour-led, seasonal cooking in her recipe development, along with a passion for bringing people together through food. With a wealth of professional kitchen experience between them, they’re dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work every single time
