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Taking matters into your own hands - New Zealand Mussel Fritters

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NZ Mussel Fritters
I've been here and there and everywhere the last week or so looking for middle range eats in Twickenham town centre, that I haven't found already, and I've come up empty handed. I've tried Reuben's Bakehouse - good pizza but filthy glasses & pitiful starters, Blue Smokehouse - had decent smoked ribs, great service but their other food was dreadful, oxidised vege and poorly executed hot dogs that were re-heated and almost cold - the cheese hadn't even melted.

NZ Green Lipped Mussels (benisland.co.nz)
I know all the restaurants in Church street are fairly good but they're just that, good - not awesome! One reprieve however is what I call the 'York Street crew' - Ben Than, Chicago Rib House & Atithi but we've all been there a load of times before and yeah there pretty good but not awesome! So with all this deflating of awesomeness, juxtaposed with the fabulous weather we're having, I figured I'll damn well do something myself, something that I like. So I reminisced about what we use to eat back home in NZ in summer - and I remembered that we used to get battered mussels from the local chippie, drench them with vinegar and drop them into our hungry mouths. So off I went on a mission to get some mussels.
Scottish mussels - cooked in garlic, onion and white wine
Today Scottish mussels are my choice, well to be blatantly honest I couldn't source anything else, but they are delicious so I got a kilo from the local supermarket. The mussels here are a different breed from the native sort we have in NZ. We have what they call 'NZ green lipped mussels' - they have a unique green line around the edge of the shell and, well.... they are a little bit bigger, just a little.

Wine with mussels and roasted garlic and cream dip

Firstly I figured I'd have a nice roasted garlic and cream dip to have with the fritters, so I threw a head of garlic into the oven for about 50 mins. I then pre-cooked the mussels in a decent Semillon wine - aussie Hunter Valley, with onion and garlic. Drained them off, shelled and de-bearded them.
I whipped up a batter with flour, ice water, baking powder, a bit of seasoning, and dropped in my mussels.

NZ Mussel Fritters

These are great for game day, sitting outside with your friends (furry friends count) with a Stars lager or a Semillon wine and a slice of lemon. So for now this will do without having to do a 12,000 mile trek, I can enjoy this from the comfort of my whare in Greater London town, kia ora to that!



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