1- The dough

1. Put the water and the sachets of natural squid ink in a saucepan.
2. Bring to the boil and leave to simmer for a few minutes.
3. Strain it so that the completely black water is totally clean.
4. Add the milk and the molten lard.
5. Put all the ingredients in the bowl of the food processor and knead until the dough is perfect and manageable.
6. Then leave in the fridge wrapped in clingfilm until the following day (if you prefer it can be used the same day after settling for a good while. Likewise, it is a dough that can be frozen perfectly well).

*Note: Margarita explains that the amount of flour is approximate: “it would be more comfortable to say whatever it will take, because that’s the truth, doughs are smart and know perfectly well when there’s enough. You should bear in mind that flours are not always the same, and of course some are fresher than others, that’s why the amount I give is approximate”.

2- The “filling”

1. Prepare the sauté with the finely chopped vegetables.
2. When everything is well sautéed, but not yet crumbling apart, remove from the heat.
3. Leave to drain in a colander and recover the oil for the filling dough.
4. In the same frying pan, mix the sautéed vegetables, the chopped mussels, the crumbled tuna and the tomato sauce.
5. On the heat, add the spoonful of flour, stir fry to cook it a little, add the liquid cream and leave to simmer for around ten minutes.
6. Put the mixture in a pastry bag and leave to cool in the fridge until the following day.

3- Shaping the croquettes

1. Cut the tip of the pastry bag with the size we need for this: in this case quite small, as we want the croquettes to be bite-sized.
2. Make long strips that you then cut as equal as possible.
3. Dip them in beaten egg and breadcrumbs (Margarita tells us that even if it’s a simple step, you have to be patient, because as they’re so small, they take their time).

4- Make the shells

1. Roll out the dough that has been left to settle.
2. With an 8 cm dough cutter, cut out and deep fry the pieces in hot olive oil (as they are dropped in they will puff up like balloons).
3. You’ll have some beautiful shells and stones, that you’ll leave on kitchen paper.

5- Fry the croquettes

1. Fry the croquettes that you’ll consume at that moment in the same oil.
2. When they are golden, leave them on kitchen paper (though they fry so quickly that they hardly have any excess oil).

6- Setting them up

1. Place a “rock” and on top its “filling”, to have a mussel beignet where you can eat it all. You can also open some rocks in the middle and fill them to then take the shell and enjoy the delicious combination in one bite.
2. With a brush you can apply some golden dots, with edible gold dust (Margarita confesses that it has no flavour at all, but it adds a nice visual touch).
3. To accompany the two variations, just a drop of mayonnaise with finely chopped parsley.

Deliciously original. Thanks, Margarita!