Moules Frites

Moules-frites is a dish with disputed origins, claimed by both Belgium and the northern coast of France. Wikipedia documents it as the Belgian national dish and a staple of French Flemish cuisine along the Channel and North Sea coasts. The mussel preparation — most commonly moules marinières, in which the mussels are steamed open in white wine with shallots, garlic, parsley, and butter — is documented to the eighteenth century in Flemish and French sources. The pairing with fried potatoes, frites, is more recent, reflecting the popularization of deep-fried potatoes in the nineteenth century. In France the dish is firmly established in the bistros of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and the Channel coast, where mussels are farmed and frites are a regional pride.

A great bowl of mussels arrives in their shells, open and glistening, steeping in a fragrant broth of white wine, shallots, and butter. The mussels are tender and briny, their liquor deeply aromatic from the wine and aromatics; the broth is the prize, sopped up with bread or, better, with the crisp, golden frites served alongside. An empty shell, used as tongs, plucks the mussels from their shells by the dozen.

Moules marinières rests on two mechanisms: the rapid steaming of the mussels and the aromatic broth. Shallots, garlic, and butter are sweated in a wide pot; white wine is added and brought to a boil. The mussels are added, the pot covered, and the heat does the work: the live mussels, held shut by their adductor muscles, open as the heat denatures those muscle proteins; the steam, carrying the wine's aromatics, penetrates the shells and flavors the meat. The mussels release their own briny liquor as they open, which combines with the wine and butter to form the broth. Cooking time is short — three to five minutes — because overcooking toughens the mussels. Mussels that do not open are discarded, as they were dead before cooking and unsafe. The frites, served alongside, are the canonical tool for sopping up the broth.