Chef Contest-Spanish Mussels with Chorizo (Lily Zhou)

Welcome to the first every CEK's 2012 Home Grown Chef Contest! 

A few months ago, I challenged my readers to submit their favorite recipes and what a great response I had!  It is up to each recipe contributor to engage their friends/family/etc to view their recipe on this blog post and the 5 most popular recipes (determined by the number of page views it receives) will be added to a poll for everyone to vote on.  (For complete rules of the contest click HERE.) Good luck!

Recipe Contributor: 

Lily Zhou from Goleta, CA

Bio:

My name is Lily, I live in Goleta with my husband, my son (3.5 years), and my daughter (18 months).  I am a trained chemist although right now I am a stay at home mom.  Cooking and eating is a hobby for me.  There are not many interesting restaurants in the Goleta area, so most of the time I take advantage of the local farmer's market and cook at home.  I don't have a blog, but I post at least once a month on yelp.

Spanish Mussels with Chorizo

1 pound cleaned mussles

olive oil

3 cloves of garlic 

1/4 cup chopped onion

half cup Spanish chorizo 

1/3 cup plum tomato

small pinch of saffron

salt and pepper

chopped parley

Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat 2 tablesp good quality olive oil. Add 3 cloves of minced or sliced garlic, 1/4 cup chopped onion or shallot, half cup of Spanish chorizo. Sauteed until the oil turns red from the paprika. Add 1/3 cup of plum tomato and just a small pinch of saffron, let it cook for about 2 min to meld the flavor. Add salt and pepper to taste (chorizo is very salty, you might not need additional salt)

2. Add 1 lb cleaned mussel to the pot. Stir and then add half a cup white wine. Close the lid and let mussels steam until the shells are open. Do not overcook.

3. Top with optional chopped parsley and serve with crusty bread.