MUSSELS WITH SOUTH AFRICAN STYLE LEMON BUTTER SAUCE

  Lemony bright, creamy and buttery without being heavy this recipe idea I am happily bringing home to you from my recent trip to South Africa.  These are my favorite souvenirs, the food idea ones that allow me to via my kitchen table transport us back to a place where we really enjoyed ourselves relaxing.  I love my home but it’s much work and it’s not a vacation.  Two weeks ago I was introduced to this sauce during our travels and in South Africa it is served along with Piri-Piri (an African/Portuguese chile sauce) and Garlic Butter Sauce with all of their grilled and steamed seafood dishes.  A plate of shellfish or fish was always accompanied by 3 small pitchers or ramekins of these sauces. That awesome platter was local mussels, Prince Prawns from Mozambique (right up the coast from South Africa) and Patagonian Calamari (WOW, thicker than our Atlantic and Mediterranean types but as soft as butter, amazing), a scoop of rice with peppers and onions and the three sauces.  This meal was had at the TWO OCEANS RESTAURANT where we had spectacular views of the tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope) where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans converge.  Top lifetime dining experiences, even if the food sucked it would have been amazing but the food rocked our world and so it was just the best, as was the whole trip.  Wild baboons completed the whole experience as they romped outside of the restaurant and around our parked cars.  It was on this wonderful vacation that my oldest daughter decided the seafood looked just too good (maybe it was the surroundings that helped influence her) and she asked to try the mussels in the LEMON BUTTER SAUCE.  One taste and she was hooked.  Seriously, HOW COULD YOU NOT BE???  Yes a simple butter, lemon and cream sauce is addictive enough that less than a week after getting home A FOOD OBSESSION (me) had to try the recipe out in our home kitchen (the AFO KITCHEN).

Online I found a recipe from the OCEAN BASKET, which I’ll say is the South African equivalent of the U.S. chain Red Lobster with a very big difference, the seafood was AMAZING at the Ocean Basket.  These were not farm raised preservative shot-up shrimp, these were fresh then probably frozen prawns, split with their heads and shells still attached for grilling.  Superior seafood.   Anyhow it’s very hard to contain my excitement for this trip and most of the food I ate/encountered so this will be the first of many home experiments I will share with you based on the trip.

Here’s the sauce:

Prep Time:	Cook Time:	Serves:
0	15minutes	4

This rich, creamy lemon sauce is delicious served with fish. You can also add other spices to it for extra flavour such as garlic or mixed fish spice.

Ingredients

125ml (1/2 cup) thickened cream
20g butter (if you are using unsalted butter, add salt to taste)
1 1/2 tablespoons (30ml) fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

Method

Step 1

Heat cream to just below boiling point, do not boil

Step 2

Add butter, lemon juice and parsley and stir until butter is melted and mixture is smooth.

Step 3

If the sauce is a little thin, simmer, stirring constantly, until it reaches the desired consistency.

Step 4

If the sauce is too thick and/or separated, add a little water (one teaspoon at a time) and stir or whisk vigorously until sauce is fixed. Serve immediately.

That’s directly from the Ocean Basket’s website.  Something was missing though.  I sauteed 1 minced clove of garlic in the butter which brought the sauce closer to what we had tasted.  You could alternately use one minced shallot.  Either way the flavor is great.

Now, for the Mussels I made, for 4 people…use 4 lbs of small cleaned fresh mussels.  When the sauce has thickened simply add the mussels to the pot and cover, bring to a boil then reduce for at least 10 minutes, making sure the sauce is not boiling, just steaming the mussels open.  After 10 minutes check and stir the mussels, then with a slotted spoon, remove the mussels into a bowl.  Return the sauce to the heat and whisk in 1/2 stick of unsalted butter which you cut into cubes..make sure it’s cold.  The butter will flavor and emulsify the sauce.  I also added a bit of saffron for color, you could use a little turmeric too (not too much, it will turn day-glo yellow green).  Portion your 4 servings of mussels on plates or bowls , squeeze fresh lemon over them, then ladle the sauce over each serving..DON’T DROWN THEM IN THE SAUCE..a little is a load of flavor here!!!!  I’m full of directions aren’t I??

AND ANY UNOPENED MUSSELS DISCARD.

Awesome!!!  Don’t think that mussels love this sauce only, grilled shrimp, langoustines, lobsters, prawns, fish filets..delicious on them all.  Try this sauce this South African way because if you are like me you are tempted to add fresh herbs, more garlic or shallot and maybe a splash of Wine.  Don’t do it.  Use this base with those other ingredients after you have made it this way at least once, then try experimenting..after eating this for days and days in South Africa we loved it just as is .  You will be very happy.

For dinner the other night along with the mussels I pour this sauce over some steamed fresh lobster as well.. Enjoy. 

p.s.  none of the dishes we had this sauce with had any parsely in the sauce so that will be up to you. Notice I did not use parsley.

Advertisement