Name: Moules Frites
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: Optional: extra butter or crème fraîche (see Note for mustard-saffron variation); 1 bunch thyme; 1 cup/240 milliliters dry white wine; 4 tablespoons/60 grams unsalted butter; Kosher salt to taste; 1 leek, halved lengthwise and cleaned, sliced crosswise (optional); 1 shallot, sliced; 1 cup/240 milliliters extra-virgin olive oil; 1 large egg yolk (save or freeze the white for a Whiskey Sour); 2 to 3 quarts/2 to 3 liters vegetable oil; 3 russet potatoes; 1 garlic clove, smashed and chopped or ground to a paste; 2 teaspoons lemon juice; 1 teaspoon water; Generous pinch kosher salt; Roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish; 4 pounds/1.8 kilograms mussels, cleaned and debearded

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

From Scratch

By Michael Ruhlman

Published 2019

About

This is a perfect dish to make if you have already parcooked and frozen your own fries and can take the time to whip up a quick aioli. But it’s even great with well-prepared store-bought frozen fries and a dish of Hellmann’s mayo on the side. Of course, the more you make from scratch, the greater the flavor and pleasure of this classic dish.

The timing is easy, because the mussels and fries both take only a few minutes to finish, and the mussels, o