Mussels... How do you prefer them?

The beaches are often full of mussel gathers..

Mussels are the most popular shellfish in Brittany... and as luck would have it, they are the cheapest!.

Many French adore foraging for oysters and mussels along the coastline. They have little hammers, just perfect to prise these mollusca from the rocks to which they cling. Within an hour or so a bucket can be full of shellfish.

Cultivated mussels are grown directly on the seabed, on ropes or stakes, called bouchots. Bouchot mussels are thought to be of superior gastronomic quality.

But how to cook these little beauties... this is where the true debate begins..

Mariners prefer them simply cooked in a little water with lots of onion and garlic and possible a bouquet garni. Others prefer them cooked in white wine. I have also eaten them on a kebab, in an omlette and in a soup...

However you like them they are really really good for you, full of iron and calcium and deliciously low in calories (apart from if they are cooked in cream... which happens to be one of my favourite mussel receipes...)