In a separate pan, heat the olive oil, add the chopped shallot and celery and let it steam for a few minutes, then add the garlic and continue heating the vegetables for another 2-3 minutes..

Increase the heat and add the rice. It should start to adsorb the moisture from the vegetables. Be careful with the heat; you must not fry the rice. After a few minutes the rice should be somewhat translucent. Lower the heat.

Add half of the white wine to the rice, the other halft of the wine to the bouillon. Stir frequently until the rice has adsorbed virtually all of the added wine.

Now start adding the bouillon, ladle by ladle. Stir all the time; do not add the next ladle of bouillon until the last one has been more ore less completely adsorbed. The whole process of adding the bouillon should take 15-20 minutes.

Add the mussels on top of the rice. Cover the pan and keep it at very, very low heat for a few minutes until the mussels have been heated all through. Remember that you do not have to cook the mussels, just to heat them.

Bring the pan to the table. Turn off any electric lights, there should only be candle-light. Remove the cover from the pan, add the cognac, replace the cover, wait 30 seconds, remove the cover again and ignite the cognac fumes. When the flames have died, serve the risotto immediately.

We recommend serving this to your loved one just after the flame dies out, to make sure that your flames don’t die out.