Easter 2019 marked the third year of mine and my Dad’s ‘mussels and vino’ cook-off. It all started one Good Friday, when of course the long-held tradition is to avoid meat in favour of fish. Sure, battered cod and chips was our common go-to dish for years, but with our new love of mussels and red wine, we decided to make this a yearly tradition.
I have to admit that I’d never ordered anything at a fish mongers until a couple of years ago. I somewhat anxiously headed to the stall at Morrisons unsure of what ‘weights’ I had to specify in order to get a bowl full of mussels that were enough for two people. I was pretty impressed when I came away with a net full at only £3 something.
Our first attempt at cooking a mussel dish went well. We’d copied a recipe that we’d had only a few months prior at a pub, containing bacon, onion and a white wine sauce. This year though, me and my Dad whipped up a bowl full of meaty mussels with a delicious creamy sauce, in what we described as a ‘best ever,’ AKA, in our family that means we’ve hit the next level in the cooking delicious meals category.
If I’m honest, I completely made this recipe up based on a photo I’d seen on Instagram of something similar, but boy was it good! Like me, you have to keep sampling the sauce and adding more ingredients to suit your own taste buds. Whatever you do, make sure you have a nice crusty cob to mop up the sauce and a large glass of vino to wash it down with. Bon Appétit!
Ingredients
- 5 shallots
- 3 garlic cloves
- Alpro soya cream
- Paprika
- Hot chilli powder
- White wine
- Salt & pepper
- Crusty baguette (I used the BFree Demi Baguette)
- Dairy free butter
Method
- Chop the shallots into quarters and peel the garlic cloves
- Melt a good dollop of butter in the pan and add the shallots. Fry until soft and golden
- Add a generous sprinkle of paprika and stir
- Press the garlic cloves into the mix and stir
- Add a good glug of white wine and stir
- Add three quarters of the soya cream to the pan and mix in
- Add more paprika until the sauce turns a golden colour
- Add a touch of chilli powder if needed. Add more wine to taste
Tummy Happy 