seafood cream

The seafood cream is a wonderful recipe to enjoy at Christmas celebrations, as well as on Sundays and other holidays. This recipe is brought to us by Luisa, author of Cooking with my Carmela , and I am convinced that you will love it.

As these dates arrive, we all spend many moments with family or friends, and without a doubt, where we most enjoy these days is around a good table. We also enjoy cooking, preparing for our own more classic, original recipes or those that have always been a tradition at home.

Today's recipe is a classic in the north of Spain and since I bring good genes from those lands, what better way than to honor it with a rich seafood cream?!

The important thing about this recipe for it to turn out well, consistent and with flavor, is the quality of the products, and of course the chup chup: if you do it with patience, take your time. That being said, the recipe is simple.

Now I hope you go to your nearest market and buy these wonderful products and get down to work.

Black 24cm Le Creuset Cocotte , Tokyo Design fleur de ligne bowls and Nezumi plates

Ingredients

• 500g of mussels
• 300g of hake
• Head and spines of hake or monkfish
• 300g of prawns
• 80g of extra virgin olive oil
• 50g of brandy
• 300ml of water
• 1 onion
• 1 leek
• 250g of natural crushed tomato
• Salt and pepper

Black 24cm Le Creuset Cocotte , Tokyo Design fleur de ligne bowls and Nezumi plates and bowls

Preparation

1. First we start by peeling the prawns, reserving the bodies and about 10 heads.
2. We are now going to make the fumet. To do this, put the hake head, shrimp and mussel shells in a cocotte , cover with water, add salt and cook for about 15 minutes. We glued and reserved the broth.
3. Separate the mussels from the shells and reserve.
4. Now we prepare a shrimp concentrate. To do this, in a frying pan add oil and the reserved heads, stir them with a spatula and squeeze them to release the juice.
5. Add Brandy and a little stock and let it cook for a few minutes.
6. Strain and reserve the broth that we have obtained.
7. Sauté the onion and the chopped leek in a cocotte with the rest of the oil. When they are well poached, add the crushed tomato, season with salt and pepper and leave for 15-20 minutes. Once the tomato is finished cooking, add the stock that we have reserved and let it cook for a few minutes so that all the flavors blend. Finally, add the hake and the prawns, and reserve some for garnish.
8. After about 10 minutes, we remove the broth and reserve; we add it later if the cream is very thick.
9. We shred everything with a kitchen robot or blender .
10. Add salt and pepper again if necessary and add broth if it is too thick.
11. To decorate, we place a couple of grilled or cooked prawns, a few leaves of basil or mint, and it's ready to serve.

Tips

• We can use the type of seafood and fish that we like the most.
• Shred more or less, depending on how you like the texture.
• If you want to cook the mussels separately, you can do so, but don't throw away that broth because it will also serve to add it to the sauce.
• You can serve the soup in beautiful bowls or in tureens, the red ones from Le Creuset will make any cream stand out.

Well I hope you like the recipe.

Louise.