Advent Recipe Day Eighteen: Bouchée Of Scallops & Green-Lipped Mussels

Clean the mussels and open them in a saucepan, cover with a lid to filter and keep the juice with the mussels.

Clean the leeks and cut in squares of 1 cm, in a saucepan put a piece of butter, when it simmers add the leeks and sweat slowly with a lid until soft.

Peel carrot and shallots and cut in a brunoise.

Slice the button mushrooms.

In a pan with remaining butter sear the scallops to give a little bit of colour and flambe with cognac, season with sea salt and white pepper with lemon. Remove the scallops and set aside. In the pan add the carrot brunoise, the finely chopped shallots and cook for 3 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and when they are cooked deglaze with sauvignon white wine, reduce by half add the crème fraiche, reduce by half again and add the scallops, cooked mussels, leeks, and some of the mussel cooking juice. Adjust the consistency of the sauce with some cornflour diluted in cold mussel cooking juice.

Heat the bouchées for 5 minutes in the oven at 170°C. Remove the cap of the bouchée.

Fill with the hot creamy seafood sauce. Put the cap back on top and decorate with some chervil or fennel leaves. With the tip of a knife, add a little white pepper and lemon.

It is easy to find bouchées at your local bakery or supermarket.

Using scallops with coral will give it a nicer colour.