If you are serving champagne (or other sparkling wine) for Valentine’s day, why not take 150ml of it and use it to prepare this elegant and simple starter. Most of the prep time here is cleaning the mussels. You can actually clean and de-beard them the night before and store in your fridge until needed.
Prep time 10 minutes/Cook time 20 minutes/Serves 2
Ingredients:
25g (1 oz) unsalted butter
½ small leek or 4 spring onions, finely chopped
150ml (3/5 cup) white sparkling wine – I used my favourite brut Methode Cap Classique
½ tbsp mild curry powder
2 kaffir lime leaves (dried is fine)
a small pinch of saffron
100ml (2/5 cup) vegetable stock (gluten-free if necessary)
150ml (3/5 cup) double (heavy) cream
500g (1 lb) mussels, cleaned
a squeeze of lemon juice
Method:
Melt the butter in a large pan and use to soften the leek over a low heat for 8-10 minutes without letting it colour. Pour in the sparkling wine, increase the heat and reduce the volume by half.
Stir in the curry powder, kaffir lime leaves, saffron, stock and double cream. Season and bring to a simmer. Tip the mussels into the pan, mix into the sauce, cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the shells have opened.
Taste the sauce, adding lemon juice and some more seasoning if needed. Ladle the mussels and sauce into 2 shallow bowls to serve.
Accompany with crusty bread to mop up the juices.
