preperation: de-bearding the mussels was pretty self evident. Then while soaking in cold water you need to check if any of the mussels have already died - if any of the shells are already open. But you need to tap on the shell first to see if it will close in which case you can keep it. I think I had to discard 4 or 5 at this stage. Then after they're cooked, take out all the mussels that have opened, but give the ones that are still closed another 5 minutes or so - by which stage we only had to turf 1.... Anyway, the recipe didn't have any of this info, so I'm glad I checked...
recipe: mussels and cherry tomato risotto
you can find the recipe on-line here
source: delicious. August 2011
verdict: Giggi was happy to try a mussel (particularly after having helped me de-beard and tap them in the preparation) and declared that he liked them. Badger ate the risotto so I was happy with that.
I loved it. The mussels were delicious and it was nice to eat a risotto that wasn't cheesy. It was a little more healthy than the average risotto as well. As an oven risotto I thought it worked really well and wasn't very labour intensive at all.
Here's a close up of the beautiful locally grown produce: the truss tomatoes and the parsley are from market.
