Mussels & Chorizo in Irish Cider Cream

This dish is a favorite of mine and my husband and always reminds me of a little side lane bistro we had lunch in when we were in Paris. I love anything at all with chorizo in it as a I simply adore the smoky, spicy flavour it gives off; So pairing mussels with chorizo is, for me,  a match made in heaven. This dish is a main course for 2 people (hungry people), but it is also an awesome starter for 4 for a dinner party. There are only 5 main ingredients for this dish and the cooking time takes literally minutes. The longest part of this dish is preparing (cleaning and debearding) the mussels.

To prepare mussels simply, throw the fresh mussels into a sink and scrub them clean and ensure that they are all closed. If they are open, tap them gently on the counter. If the close, then they are ok, if they remain open, then discard. Use a butter knife to debeard the mussels and then put them in a bowl of cold water ready for using. My mussels were so fresh they even had a little crab wriggling around in amongst them. I freed the poor little guy, however I don't know how long he would survive outside. Poor guy! Wrong place, wrong time!

Once you have your mussels prepped then, cooking the dish takes hardly no time at all.

Ingredients

• 2.5 - 3kg Fresh mussels, washed and debearded
• 150g chopped chorizo 
• 3 shallots, diced
• 500ml of bulmers cider
• 200ml of pouring cream
• Pepper
• Lemon wedges
• 2 tbsp of olive oil

To serve
Garlic bread & lots of freshly chopped flat leaf parsley.

Method

1. In a pan with a lid, on a medium to high heat, saute the shallots and the chorizo for a few minutes in the oil.
2. Then add the mussels and the cider. Bring to the boil.
3. Place the lid on the pan and cook the mussels for 4 minutes.
4. Remove the lid and add the cream, pepper and parsley.
5. Serve with lemon wedges and garlic bread.