This weekend has been spent consistently feasting, which is why I think I need to eat only soup for the next three days in order to give my stomach a well-deserved rest. We shall see….

On Saturday morning I had arranged to meet my friend Sarah at Borough market. We had originally hoped this would be an early morning venture so we could feel smug about being up and about whilst most of our friends were in bed with wine-heads and also to beat the crowds that steadily creep in all morning. But alas we decided on meeting at 10:30, which became 11 after I slept in (sorry about that Sarah) and Sarah was slightly late herself (thanks, because then I didn’t feel so bad). It was pretty heaving, so we made a bee-line line for the sausage rolls, then the veg stall, followed swiftly by the cheesecake stall and then after hasty zipping in and out of the crowds we managed to find some sausages for Sarah’s bangers and mash. Our cheese hunt was abandoned when we realised we could not be bothered to worm our way back in to the dense crowds at the market and also were not too enthusiastic about joining a half hour queue in Neil’s Yard.
 
So yes we were slightly pathetic, but we got most of what we intended and a bit more (sausage roll, carrot cake….) and decided to wander down along the river to South Bank, where I had heard a rumour there was another food market on, which was where Sarah managed to pick up some cheese. So quite the foodie day, and it did not end there…..
 
I must thank the fish man and lady (see last post) as they were true to their words and the mackerel was amazing. In the end I just had it with salad and sautéed diced potatoes (par-boiled for a few minutes to make things easier for myself, and then cooked on a high heat with some olive oil, sea salt and black pepper). The mussels were frozen, which I thought I should mention just in case you had a mental image of me writhing around hallucinating after ignorantly eating week-old mussels, but this did not hamper the taste. I decided to cook them in the traditional way with white wine, shallots, cream and garlic seeing as I had no plans to leave the house, so I may as well stink. I thought it useful to include the recipe as I know lots of people are fearful of cooking mussels, with no good reason as they are really very easy to cook (especially so with frozen ones!) and as long as you throw away the ones that are still closed when you have cooked you will be ok. This seems silly to me, as who would try to eat a mussel that is closed? Still, there are many things that amaze me every day and perhaps this is just one of those things.
 
Mussels in White Wine
 
Serves 2
 
500g mussels (if fresh, scrub well and discard any that do not close when tapped)
Glug of olive oil

1 banana shallot or two small shallots, finely diced
1 large clove of garlic
1 glass of wine
300ml (or nearest pot size, I think it may be 284ml) double cream
 

Throw the mussels in a large pot and cover. Cook on a high heat for approx five minutes and until the mussels have opened up (remember there may be a couple which will not open, discard these).

In a seperate pot*, heat the olive oil over a medium flame and then add the shallots. Stir. After a couple of minutes add the garlic, stir, and after another couple of minutes add the wine. At this point I would probabably raise the heat slighlty so that the wine reduces.

When the mussels are cooked, drain** and add to the pot with the garlic, shallots and wine. Add the cream and stir in. Sprinkle over some fresh parsely, black pepper and serve with crusty bread.

*I used a seperate pot because the mussels were frozen and I wanted to drain the gritty water at the end before adding to the sauce, if fresh I would cook the shallots and garlic, then add the mussels.

**If the mussels were fresh and not frozen I would not drain and would use the juices in the sauce, but the frozen water from the mussels was a bit gritty so in this instance I drained. It's completely up to you.