Mussel and Fennel Soup Yesterday was a pleasant day. It didn't rain, the spouse brought me breakfast in bed (despite his having been out on a "mini-tear" the night before) and we weren't in a rush to get anything done. After I observed last Wednesday that I hadn't made much progress through the fish section of The Soup Book , I decided to have another go. I checked with the two offspring that they would both eat mussels and asked the spouse to see if his favourite fish shop had any while he was out doing the shopping. Obviously, they had otherwise I'd be writing about a completely different soup today. So, the ingredients for my forty-ninth soup included mussels, dry white wine (I used Sancerre), tomatoes, leek, parsley, thyme, a bay leaf, fennel, orange peel, potato and saffron. The advice from the fish monger (not the same as the one I spoke to earlier in the week) was to put the mussels in a bowl and cover them with a plate. I did this and before putti...