We are already with Christmas just around the corner! And the truth is that, given the avalanche of meals and meetings that are coming up, I love having the party menus planned in advance so that I can organize myself with peace of mind. And at home they have already unanimously decided that this cream of mussels that I bring you today deserves a place of honor on our table these days.

This dish has it all! It is very easy to prepare, we can leave it done the day before, with how good that is for us on these dates, and best of all, it is very cheap and tremendously rich! Come on, it has nothing to envy to other much more expensive seafood creams.

And for it to be perfect, we just need to make it pretty... Well, we are going to achieve that with a cool decoration, such as some puff pastry figures, a little chives, making a drawing with the cream on the cream... and on especially if we serve it in soup tureens as beautiful and special as these from Revol . I can't wait to get mine out for Christmas Eve dinner!!

Have I convinced you? Well, let's go for the recipe!

Evolution Le Creuset round cocotte , Pallarès carbon steel knife and Revol porcelain tureens

Ingredients (for 4 people)

• 1 kg of mussels
• 200 ml of white wine
• 500-550 ml of water
• 1 onion
• 1 tomato
• 1 clove garlic
• 100 g of bread (preferably the day before)
• 200 ml of liquid cream
• Olive oil

Elaboration

1. We start by preparing the mussels. We wash them well and remove the beards.
2. Then we put the cocotte on the fire with half the white wine, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan, and add the mussels
3. As they open, we remove them from the pan and, as soon as we can handle them without burning ourselves, we remove the shells and reserve.
4. Helping us with a strainer , we filter the water from the mussels and reserve.
5. In the same pan add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and heat over low heat.
6. With a good knife , cut the onion into small cubes, add it to the cocotte and fry until it is tender but without turning colour.
7. Once the onion is well poached, raise the heat and add the sliced ​​garlic and fry until it turns golden brown (be careful not to burn it!).
8. Then add the grated tomato and cook over medium heat until the tomato water evaporates.
9. Once the tomato water has evaporated, add the rest of the white wine.
10. Let it boil for about a minute for the alcohol to evaporate.
11. Add the mussels to the pan (except 4 that we will reserve to decorate), fry for a minute and add the cooking water.
12. Also add the water and cook for about 15 minutes over low heat.
13. After this time, add the bread to the pan and let it rest for a few minutes so that it softens and it is easier to crush it.
14. Add the cream and blend with a hand or glass blender until a very fine cream is obtained (although I like to pass it through a ball strainer to make sure it is very smooth and without any traces of beards from the mussels that have could sneak).
15. We serve in our best crockery and decorate with the mussels that we had reserved and a little cream.

Revol porcelain tureens and round cocotte Evolution Le Creuset

Grades

• For the decoration I have put, in addition to the mussels, some puff pastry stars that, in addition to being very good, give the cream a delicious crunchy touch.
• To prepare them we only need a sheet of puff pastry, which we will cut with a pastry cutter in the way we like best, brush with beaten egg and take to the oven preheated to 190º-200º until it is golden, about 10 minutes approximately.
• The amount of water that we have to add to the cream is indicative, it depends on how much water we obtain from cooking the mussels, but to give us an idea, the total (water + water from cooking the mussels) should be about 700 or 750 ml, depending on whether we want it more or less concentrated in flavor and more or less thick.

I hope you like the recipe and that you make room for it on your table this Christmas, because I promise you that it will surprise you, and I dare say that it will become a classic in your homes as it has already done in the mine.