Saturday entertaining: West coast mussels with sweetcorn and Chorizo in white wine and cream sauce

West coast mussels with sweetcorn and Chorizo in a white wine and cream sauce

By Executive Chef Carolize Coetzee at Tokara Restaurant

You’ll need: 100g chorizo sausage; 4 whole cobs of sweet corn; 40 West Coast mussels (10 per portion); 200g onion, finely chopped; 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped; 6 sprigs of fresh thyme; 1 litre of fresh cream; 500ml white wine; salt to taste.

How to: 

Scrub the mussels until clean and remove the beards. Set aside in the fridge until ready. 

Remove the casing of the chorizo sausage and cut it into small cubes. Set aside.

Cook the sweet corn cobs in salted water for 10 min. Remove from the water and cool.

Fry the cooked corn cobs in a hot pan with butter until golden. 

Cooldown completely and cut the kernels off the cob, reserving the cobs for the sauce.

Sauté the onions, garlic and thyme until the onions are translucent. Add the corncobs and half the white wine and cook until the liquid is reduced by half.

Add the cream and cook on low heat for 20min.

Remove the corn cobs and discard.

Blend the sauce until smooth.

Add salt to taste.

Cooking and assembly:

Heat the cream sauce until boiling and then turn it down to a low simmer.

In a small pan, sauté the chorizo cubes and sweet corn kernels, and add to the sauce.

Keep warm.

Heat a pot with a lid to medium heat and add the remaining white wine.

Directly afterwards, add the mussels and close with the lid.

Shake every 30 seconds and cook the mussels for 7 minutes until they have opened.

Remove the mussels from the pot and dish the mussels into the warm cream sauce.

Season to taste and serve in a bowl with crusty bread on the side.

Tokara Reserve Collection Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is available at a cellar door price of R160 per bottle.

* Recipe & image by  www.tokara.com