Mussels with Thyme and White Wine Cream Sauce (Moules a la creme)

I love Mussels! I love hunting for them on the rocks, love picking them off the rocks, cleaning them, cooking with them, eating them and if there are any left over, pickling them!

My grandparents, Winifred and Leslie, used to live at Kayser's Beach and when my family got together at Christmas time, they used to go and pick mussels and then bring them back for us all to eat.  This is my first memory of eating mussels.  I remember we used to dip the mussel meat in a small bowl of vinegar - yummy!

Now, my grandparents have since moved to Gonubie, but I still visit Kayser's Beach, to pick mussels.  My ever patient boyfriend, Brad, always comes along to help me or to simply watch me prance over the rocks like a 5 year old on Christmas morning!

We usually steam our mussels and serve them straight away with lemon, Lea and Perrins hot pepper sauce or a bit of vinegar but one day I felt like something a little differerent.  I found a super recipe for a sauce with cream and wine so I tried it out and it was DELICIOUS!  We sat around the dining room table over the pot and dunked our mussels into the creamy sauce, just like that!  It was heavenly!

Once we had had our fill, there was still plenty of sauce, and mussels, left over so the next night we poured the sauce and mussel meat into a huge bowl of pasta - very very yummy!

Here is the recipe for the sauce:

Ingredients:
5 shallots or half an onion sliced thinly
2 large cloves of garlic
A handful of fresh thyme
1 and a half cups of white wine (I use about one cup only and sip the other half cup!)
A quarter cup of cream
4 tablespoons of butter (I use about 3 as it is a lot of butter)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

• In a heavy bottomed pot or saucepan, heat the olive oil and butter until melted
• Saute the onions until translucent, then add the garlic and saute for a couple of minutes more.
• Add the wine and thyme and stir everything around nicely.
• Once the wine is bubbling, reduce the heat and add the cream, some salt and pepper to taste and stir.
• Depending on how thick you like your sauce, you may want to add some Maizena or cornflour to thicken it a little.  Grab a spoon and spoon out a nice full tablespoon of the sauce and pour into a little bowl or cup.  Add about a teaspoon or so of cornflour and mix to form a smooth paste.  Once mixed, add to your pot of sauce and whisk until all is blended.  Your sauce should thicken almost immediately.  If needed, repeat the process until it is thick enough for you.
• Sometimes, I like to add a bit of crumbled feta cheese to the sauce just before I serve it - it's DELICIOUS!