Caldo de Choros (Peruvian Mussel Soup)

Caldo de Choros, Peruvian Mussel Soup

Beat the cold, foggy, and rainy San Francisco summer weather blues with this Peruvian steamed mussels soup — Caldo de Chorros. Start with a simple vegetable stock, then prepare an onion sofrito with garlic, ginger, and spicy aji amarillo. Add a little bit of white wine, steam the mussels, and top off with cilantro and a few drops of lime juice. Serve with bread, pair with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling, and you’ll be inviting summer weather back to San Francisco.

INGREDIENTS

• 5 cups vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup diced red onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon aji amarillo paste
• 24 mussels
• 1/2 cup white wine
• chopped cilantro and quartered limes for garnish

PREPARATION

In addition to the ingredients above, you’ll need 2 pots, one to warm the stock, and one to steam the mussels.

1. Warm the stock in one pot
2. Prepare the sofrito by sautéing the onions, garlic, ginger and aji amarillo in another pot with cooking oil over medium heat
3. Transfer 3/4 of the sofrito to the pot with the stock, stir to mix well
4. Pour between 1/2 and 1 cup of vegetable stock into the pot with the remaining sofrito, and bring to a boil
5. Pour the wine, add the mussels, cover with a lid, and let steam until all the mussels open
6. Serve the mussels into shallow soup bowls, pour 1 cup of stock over each serving, garnish with parsley and a few drops of lime juice.

SERVINGS

4 servings

NOTES

Be sure to use fresh mussels, and cook them the same day you picked them up from your fishmonger. Discard any mussels that opened before cooking. When steaming the mussels, use only enough stock to create a shallow pool that will boil and produce enough steam to cook the mussels, but is not too deep to cover all of the mussels. Discard any mussels that did not open after steaming.