Recommendations
Mussels with Ketel 1 Original
On the table is a pan of cooked mussels with onion, carrot, celery and white wine, with bread on the side. Set against it is the young jenever from Nolet in Schiedam, which catches the seawater of the mussels and runs through the seasoning of the broth.
From the shelf
The bottle
Ketel 1 Original comes from Nolet Distillery at Hoofdstraat 14 in Schiedam, a distillery founded in 1691. It is a jonge jenever of 35% vol, in a bottle of 100 cl with us. The distillate is a blend of wheat, rye and corn distillate that rested for a year in French oak barrels of 217 litres, with fourteen botanicals added. The name refers to distilling kettle number 1 from 1864, the coal-fired copper kettle that is still in use at Nolet.
The combination
Why this works together
Mussels cook in their own seawater, and that liquid combines with the wine and the vegetables into a broth that is sharp, salty and slightly bitter. Such a broth needs no counterweight but a continuation: something that goes the same way without turning sweet. A young genever does that, because it brings mainly alcohol and herbs and hardly any malt-wine roundness. The alcohol takes the salt from the lips, which makes a practical difference when eating mussels with your hands. The year on oak that this distillate has had gives just enough softness to absorb the sharp vinegar side of the celery. An old genever or korenwijn would rise above the mussel with its malt; shellfish always loses out to grain sweetness.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 25 minutes
- Type main course
What you need
- 4 kg fresh mussels
- 2 medium onions
- 2 winter carrots
- 4 celery sticks
- 30 g flat-leaf parsley
- 3 tablespoons mild olive oil
- 2 bay leaves
- 500 ml dry white wine
- hearty bread and coarse mustard to serve alongside
How to make it
- Wash the mussels under cold running water. Throw away all broken shells and also the open shells that do not close when you tap them.
- Cut the onions into half rings. Scrape the winter carrots and cut them into slices of half a centimetre. Cut the celery into small arcs. Finely chop the parsley.
- Heat the oil in a large mussel pot, add the vegetables, the parsley and the bay leaves and fry them for 3 minutes.
- Deglaze with the white wine and add the mussels. Boil the mussels with the lid on for 5 to 8 minutes over high heat.
- Shake the pan regularly in between, so that the mussels from the bottom come to the top and those from the top go down. The mussels are done as soon as all the shells are open. Serve with bread and mustard.
In the glass
Serving
Pour Ketel 1 Original chilled into a tulip glass, filled to the rim, and place the glass next to the pan. Young jenever can be served at room temperature, but with mussels chilled is more practical: the glass between two hands full of shells stays fresh that way. Keep the bottle in the cooler and top up every round.
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