Chorizo, chilli and tomato mussel potjie
This dish can be cooked inside, just cook on a medium high heat.
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
200g cooking chorizo, skinned and cut into small chunks
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes
½ tsp smoked sweet paprika
200ml white wine
400g tin of pulped or chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
1 stock pot - chicken or vegetable
½ tsp or 12/14 good grinds of black pepper
2 boxes of pre-cooked mussels (I like Waitrose plain but you can also get them in garlic and wine or garlic butter - you will wash off the sauce so it doesn’t matter) - If you want to get fresh mussels you can, just set aside an extra half an hour to clean and debeard
10g parsley, very finely chopped
Method
Start by lighting your braai or bbq. When your coals are white hot you can begin, I find this takes about half an hour. You will be cooking on direct heat.
Meanwhile if you bought fresh mussels then wash and debeard them. If you bought mussels in sauce then wash your mussels in cold water.
In a potjie pot with a lid (or a le creuset pot also works), put a tbsp of oil and cook the onion for roughly 3-5 minutes, until they are soft. Add the chorizo and cook for 5-7 minutes until the paprika rich oil has been released and everything is starting to caramelise.
Add the garlic, chilli, chilli flakes and paprika, stir through and cook for a minute. Add the wine slowly, scraping the bottom as you add it and cook for a few minutes until it has reduced by roughly half.
Add the tomatoes, sugar, stock pot and black pepper, stir and cook for 5 minutes, bubbling away.
Add the mussels, stir and put on the lid and cook for around 5 minutes until they are all hot.
Serve in bowls with fresh crusty bread to mop up all the beautiful sauce.