Other than that I went to the kitchen place today to
finalise my design so that is becoming very real and there’s a possibility the
builders could be in next week. As I was that way anyway I went into the lovely
fishmongers down past hove lagoon aptly named Fish where mussels were only £3 a
kilo…I couldn’t resist! So this evening, to celebrate over 1500 visitors to my
new site (I’m rather overwhelmed by the response) we ate far too many mussels
with cider and chorizo. Delish! And it only takes ten minutes to cook, just the
right time to bake a part baked baguette to dunk in! Mussels are extremely
cheap and tasty and are in season from October to March.
Two of us devoured this with crusty bread and salad, but my
stomach is still groaning 4 hours later, so I’d say you could comfortable feed
three.
Ingredients
1kg Mussels
4 banana shallots
1 clove garlic
100g chorizo sausage (not sliced)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Handful flat leaf
parsley
Approx. 350ml dry cider
Wash and de-beard your mussels.
Dice your chorizo into rougly 1cm2. Finely chop
the garlic and shallots. Heat a glug of olive oil in a deep sided frying pan and when hot
add the chorizo. Fry on high until crisping up at the sides and the orange
coloured oils are released from the meat before turning the heat to low and adding
the garlic and shallots.
Cook until the shallots are turning translucent, this will
only take a couple of minutes, keep everything moving to ensure the garlic and
shallots do not burn.
Add the mussels, oregano and enough cider to fill the pan by about 2/3. Put
the lid on and cook on high for 4-7 minutes, until the shells have opened. Remove the mussels with a slotted spoon and bubble the
liquid until it has reduced by about half. Pour over the mussels, sprinkle with
parsley and serve with crusty bread.
