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RICE, MUSSELS AND (an Algerian recipe)

Wash the mussels well; set them on the fire in a stewpan without any water, but with a close-fitting lid. Shake them up from time to time so as to bring them all in turn to the bottom. They will gradually open and give out their liquor, in which, and in the steam from it, they will cook. When they are all well opened and detach easily from the shell, turn them out into a large-holed colander placed over a vessel to catch the liquor which strains, and set aside to settle. Take the mussels out of their shells, rejecting the weed attached to their inside and any little parasitical crabs within them, and put them aside. Boil rice as if for a curry, so as to be as dry as possible when done. To this put a good lump of butter and a few table-spoonfuls of the mussel liquor, season with pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg. Put in the mussels, beat up all together, mixing without breaking them; or heap the warmed-up mussels in the centre of a dish, and surround them with the seasoned rice.