Cockle and Mussel Soup

Name: Cockle and Mussel Soup
Yield: serves 10–12
Ingredients: freshly ground pepper; a little cream (optional); 55 g roux; 600 ml–1.1 litres boiling milk; finely chopped parsley; tiny crisp croutons; ½ fresh bay leaf; 2 sprigs of fresh thyme; 2 sprigs of fresh fennel; 1 clove garlic, mashed; 1.8–2.3 kg mussels; 450 ml dry white wine; 8–10 tablespoons shallots, chopped; 10 sprigs of parsley; 1.8–2.3 kg cockles

Preparation info

serves
10–12

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Darina Allen's Simply Delicious Suppers

By Darina Allen

Published 2001

About

Molly Malone, after whom the song was named, was a famous Dublin fishmonger. Among other things she sold, ‘cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o’.

Ingredients

1.8–2.3 kg cockles
1.8–2.3 kg mussels
450 ml

Lunch
Starter
Snack
Pescatarian
Soup

Method

Wash the cockles and mussels in several changes of cold water checking that they are all tightly shut. Put the wine, shallots, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, fennel and garlic into a wide stainless steel saucepan and add the cockles and mussels. Cover and cook over a gentle heat for a few minutes, stir frequently and as soon as the shells start to open pick them out. Remove the cockles and mussels f