Oh it’s so easy to slip comfortably back into our Spanish life. Friends and family keep asking us “which is better, Spain or England?”. We answer, absolutely sincerely, “we love them both, they’re different, you can’t compare, we make the most of each country and enjoy all the good things they each have to offer”.
Fish Man seems to have disappeared from our route, but the supermarkets here have an amazing choice at good prices. Mostly fresh and local (or at least, from Spain) too. The other day I bought a kilo of mussels which came from near Pontevedra in the North of Spain. It’s famous for the mussel beds and we ate plenty on our trip there a few years back.
I also bought some fresh langoustines but forgot to ask where they came from. Peppers, tomatoes and onions grown down on the coast and a rosé wine from Rueda were pretty much all the ingredients I needed to make this simple but delicious lunch dish. Oh yes, a lemon from our tree…
Ingredients (for 2 people)
- 1kg cleaned mussels
- 8 langoustines
- Half a small red and green pepper, finely diced
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped into small pieces
- 1 medium tomato, finely chopped
- A small glass of wine (whatever colour you like!)
- Half a lemon cut into small chunks (and I also added half a teaspoon of my lemon myrtle)
- Half a teaspoon of hot pimentón or chilli powder (or to taste)
- Olive oil
I used a lidded cazuela to make this dish but a deep frying pan with a lid or a saucepan would also work.
On a low heat, warm the olive oil and add the garlic and peppers. Cover and sweat until soft. Add the tomato, wine and spices and cook for a few minutes. You can now turn this off if you’re not ready to eat and then just warm the sauce up a few minutes beforehand to finish the dish off, or continue to the last stage.
Add the mussels, prawns and fresh lemon, stir and cover. Cook for a few minutes until all the mussels are open. Don’t eat any that won’t open!
Garnish with some freshly chopped parsley. Unless of course, Big Man has been gardening all morning and cleared all your herbs thinking they were weeds. Oh my, kitchen unexpectedness, I laugh in your face. Pour a glass of wine, and enjoy your lovely lunch with plenty of bread to mop up the juices and perhaps (as we did) a salad of tomatoes, olives, garlic and onion. No herbs though, obviously.
Chica Andaluza 
The big man gets 100 points for that faux pas Ms Chica 😉
Mmmmm – and it’s not like he hasn’t done similar things before. Not sure if this was worse than cutting an electric cable with my hugely expensive left-handed dressmaking scissors … probably not quite as bad!
😉
Ha ha – I think I’d choose Spain, but the grass is always greener on the other side. Though it might be brown in Spain right now!
What a delicious combination 😉
The grass is definitely tinged with brown right now!
I thought so – no chance of that here, it’s raining 😉
L At least my plants won’t have died!
They should be fine, there have been a lot of showers 🙂
Good for us far away but a bit less cheerful for those of you being showered on L
🙂
Reblogged this on Foodfhonebook and commented:
Very Nice
Foodfhonebook
I like this recipe. I’ll ask my ‘monger about the langoustines. I know he has them cooked. Are these live?
No, but they were raw – possibly frozen when caught and then defrosted for sale but cooked would be fine too – just pop them in at the end to warm through rather than to cook. Yum!
Beautiful! Wish I could get fresh mussels where I live! I’ll just keep looking at your photos!
I sometimes forget how lucky we are in both our little homes that we have access to such great seafood!
Oh yum. The Management and I are off to Cornwall in the near future so looking forward to lots of very fresh seafood there.
I don’t allow The Management to ‘garden’ unsupervised as he has pulled out too many ‘weeds’ that weren’t. You have my sympathy ‘re the herbs 😎
Allowing them to garden unsupervised can lead to all sorts of unexpectedness!
And not all good.
😉
Thanks for the recipe to cook the scallops , to my knowledge only cooked shellfish boiled , salted and acid alone . This recipe from Spain ?
It’s a very Mediterranean way of cooking shellfish!
Wine in the recipe ‘whichever colour you like’! – o yeah, my style of cooking!! Because of provenance I can normally just have the mussels . . . but we’ll keep on trying!!
It’s a great way to cook mussels on their own – and the wine is almost compulsory 😉
What a beautiful dish! I can just picture how marvellous it must be to eat on a warm summer’s evening in Spain, with a glass of vino in hand and chunks of bread for mopping up those delicious juices once the seafood has been devoured! Just a little envious! 😉 Lovely to see the lemon myrtle getting another run on too!
Aha – you now what our evenings are like! I am loving the lemon myrtle and will definitely be buying some in England!
I cannot wait to get fresh langoustines in Scotland when we are there!
You will hopefully be spoilt for choice!
Scrumity! And what a pretty lemon you had on your tree. Ours tend to be a little lumpy on the outside are are still fabulous on the inside.
Have a beautiful day Tanya.
🙂 Mandy xo
The lemons are almost yellow now – although we do have a few lumpy ones too!
Seems such a worthy dish, love it! 😀
Mmmmm you are so lucky to have the best of both worlds. I’d love to be able to visit England sometime. Although maybe not when it’s cold……..
Even in summer – you can’t rely on it being warm in England!
I wouldn’t be able to choose between Spain and England either…both so amazing! Lovely mussels recipe with the perfect combination of garlic, lemon, chili and of course, white wine:)
Tough choices – but both so lovely!
Amazing recipe with the perfect combination of garlic, lemon, chili and of course, white wine. Beautiful look too 🙂
Thank you – and for all your lovely comments!
My kind of perfect meal.
J
I like the recipe as always
once the exact delicious
Recipes that taste good. Mrs. Chica try to create recipes using crab. in Greece there are not crabs?
In Spain we do have crab sometimes, but not so often as they are very expensive.
Same in Indonesia Crabs are also very expensive. Though Indonesia many marine. Perhaps because of rare or difficult to cultivate crabs.
You could be right! In England we can buy crab fairly cheaply and in Spain large prawns.
I never eat mussels by using tomato sauce mixed with peanut sauce and pineapple sauce … hm ….. its delicious taste, I think you need to try it.
thanks for the recipe 🙂