Name: Billi-Bi of Cream of Mussels with Sorrel (Le Billi-Bi)
Yield: For 4 people
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: Eggs (4 large); Salt butter (2 or 3 Tb); Crystal salt, freshly ground black pepper, red Cayenne pepper; All-purpose flour; Parsley (small bunch); Shallots (4 or 5 cloves); Heavy cream (1 pint); Sorrel, the oseille of so many fine French recipes (enough to fill ½ cup, chopped); Yellow onion (1); Whole bay leaf (1), garlic (1 to 2 cloves, to taste), thyme (1 tsp); Fresh mussels in their shells (3 lbs.); A dry Muscadet wine from the Loire Valley (1 bottle); Dry white wine (2 cups); Parsley (3 whole sprigs); The leaves from 1 heart of white celery

Preparation info

For
4
people

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth

By Roy Andries De Groot

Published 1973

About

There is a somewhat questionable story as to the strange name of this very French rich seafood soup with the unusual flavor. It is said to have been invented for, and affectionately named after, the American scientist, explorer and gastronome William Beebe. Somewhere in France. But where? I have found it in country bistros (including the Auberge) in virtually every part of France that is within a reasonable distance of the sea. But nowhere more regularly than in Normandy, and especially in