Sometimes it’s hard not to seem pretentious when cooking national dishes. I was looking for a dry white wine to use for this dish and the assistants at the store were helping me. In the process of helping me, they asked what I would be using the wine for and I told them to make Moules-Frites. They had never heard of it, so I explained that it was just mussels and french fries and that it was the Belgium national dish.
However if this was Belgium, the wine assistants would have known exactly what to recommend. There are many different ways to prepare Moules Frites. The article A National Obession: Belgium’s Moules Frites outlines some of this exotic combinations including using curry powder.
Side stories aside, this is a quick dish to make and very impressive to serve. I decided to make the classic Moules-Frites with a little white wine and butter. In addition, I decided to make homemade mayonnaise and french fries. To speed this meal prepartion , you could use frozen fries and store bought mayo, I am not judging(maybe a little).
In terms of price, this is not a expensive meal to make. Hopefully you will have some leftover white wine in the house. I found my major expenses to be the white wine and the mussels. To avoid my predicament at the store, a dry wine is (article here)
A dry wine is simply a wine that has no residual sugar, meaning it isn’t sweet. When grape juice converts to wine, alcohol is produced in the fermentation process because yeast eats the sugar present in the juice. In many wines, the winemaker stops the fermentation process before the yeast has time to eat all the sugar, leaving the wine a touch sweet. When a winemaker leaves a little sugar behind, we call this residual sugar. To make a dry wine, the winemaker will instead let the fermentation process finish completely, allowing the yeast to consume all the sugar present. No more sugar, so no sugary sweetness; the wine is therefore dry.
First I started off by making the mayo. Making the mayonnaise is a simple process but it does require a lot of patience and arm strength to keep whisking the mayonnaise to the right consistency. As a pro tip, it is easier with someone to help pour the oil steadily. You could use a kitchen aid mixer to whisk while you pour in the oil in a steady stream but it’s not the same as doing it by hand.
Also I can’t use Grey Poupon without thinking of this.
With the mayonnaise chilling in the fridge and watching the Grey Poupon commercial one more time, it was time to prepare the french fries. I could not find any Yukon gold potatoes at the local grocery store, so I used bulk baking potatoes.
I am ashamed to admit that I had no idea how to chop a potato into french fries. Simply you start by first peeling the potato and then chopping off one side to form a base. With the potato resting on the base, you then cut lengthwise into larger pieces, and then cut those pieces lengthwise again. If my description is not very clear, you can consult this video.
To get the fries perfect, we are going to fry them twice. First to cook the potato, then make them crispy. Frying is so cool to watch!
This is the result of the first frying process is on the left and the right side is after the second frying process. Notice the huge change in color!
While the fries were going through the second frying process, I prepared the mussels, and the first step was to wash and go through the mussels to remove any bad mussels. For those unfamiliar with the process of checking mussels
Rinse and stir mussels under cold running fresh water. Mussels naturally open and close their shells when out of water. For any mussels that do not close after rinsing, tap their shells or lightly squeeze them while running under the water again. For any mussel that still does not close, throw it away.
Also more on that here
Before you get cooking, you have to add the vegetables, butter, and wine to your pot. I used my brand new Dutch Oven to prepare these mussels.
The time needed to cook mussels is really low, about 5 to 7 minutes. At this time just stir the mussels until they open up.
All plated and ready to go!
Nestled in their bowls, the Moules-Frites is ready to be eaten.
Moules-Frites is a fun food to have with friends or a loved on. To me it is a more impractical fish and chips. However it is delicious and just plain fun to eat.
Recipe for Moules-Frites is available here.