After a big day of shopping at the market, we were very ready for lunch. I cooked the mussels (which had to be cooked ASAP) in the Belgian style, and serve it with roasted potatoes. The lady at the potato stall did say you could eat the mini potatoes simply deep fried, instead of chips. So I guess our lunch was kind of like moules et frites. Having a bit of goosefat leftover from Christmas, I decided to roast the potatoes instead of deep frying them. (There was also less splatter that way). I just par-boiled them, and then roasted them for 30 minutes in a super-hot oven with the goosefat. Yummy.

While they were roasting away, I got on with the mussels. Using Nigella's recipe from How to Eat, I sauteed garlic, chopped parsley and a finely chopped onion in butter, added some white wine, turned the heat up, dropped the mussels in, and clamped the lid on. It only took about 4 minutes to cook, shaking the pot every now and then to disperse the heat and ensure even cooking.

The potatoes had a great potato flavour, crunchy skin, and a nice fluffy middle to soak up all the winey, mussely juices. Halfway through eating, however, I realised that, nice though the potatoes were, I desperately needed bread - real, sourdough crusty bread - to soak up the juices. We didn't really have that type of bread at home, so I have to admit I stole the ciabatta bread from the outside of my yet-to-be-eaten ham panino from the Convent. (I saved the filling in the fridge for the next day, and ate it between less glamorous bread). The ciabatta was perfect for the job.