mussel cream

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 mussel cream that I bring you today deserves a place of honor at 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 at this time, 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 to make it perfect, we just need it to be pretty... Well, we're 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 tureens as beautiful and special as these from Revol . I'm already looking forward to taking 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 from 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 of the white wine, just enough to cover the bottom of the casserole, and add the mussels
3. As they open, we remove them from the casserole and, as soon as we can handle them without burning ourselves, we remove the shells and reserve.
4. Using a strainer , filter the water from the mussels and reserve.
5. In the same casserole, add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and heat over low heat.
6. With a good knife, cut the onion into cubes, add it to the cocotte and fry until tender but not coloured.
7. Once the onion is well poached, increase the heat and add the sliced ​​garlic and fry until it is 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 so that the alcohol evaporates.
11. Add the mussels to the casserole (except 4 that we will reserve for decoration), fry for a minute and add the cooking water.
12. We also add the water and cook for approximately 15 minutes over low heat.
13. After this time, add the bread to the casserole and let it rest for a few minutes so that it softens and is easier to grind.
14. Add the cream and blend with a hand or glass blender until you get a very fine cream (although I like to pass it through the ball strainer to make sure it is very smooth and without any remains of mussel beards that have could strain).
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 Evolution Le Creuset cocotte

Grades

• For the decoration I have put, in addition to the mussels, some puff pastry stars that, in addition to being very successful, give the cream a delicious crunchy touch.
• To prepare them we only need a sheet of puff pastry, which we will cut with a cookie cutter in the way we like best, brush with beaten egg and take to the preheated oven at 190º-200º until golden, approximately 10 minutes.
• The amount of water that we have to add to the cream is indicative, it depends on how much water we get from cooking the mussels, but to give us an idea the total (water + cooking water for 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.