Recipe: Marinière de moules de bouchot sumac et verveine mentholée

1- In a large saucepan, place your mussels, your finely sliced shallots, your cream, your white wine, salt (lightly) and pepper from the mill, cover and let your mussels open.

2- When your mussels are open, then add the sumac and the finely sliced lemon verbena leaves, bring to a boil again, then cover and turn off your heat and leave for 15 minutes.

3- Either serve them this way in the middle of the table with the strained juice on the side, or like me, arrange them open on hot plates with the boiling strained juice poured over them.
You might ask me why I add this spice and this plant. Sumac is a spice I have been using for many years for its deliciously citrusy taste, and it appears in many preparations from the other side of the Mediterranean. Personally, I use it in cakes, fruit salads, broths, fresh cheese, etc.
As I was fortunate to have Bertrand Venet (ethic valley) as a friend who imported it directly from the Bekaa Valley, I never ran out of it, and besides, isn't the essence of French cuisine to have always incorporated spices from the four corners of the planet?
As for the menthol lemon verbena, it grows on my balcony and in my garden and perfumes them day after day.