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This may be the coolest way to cook mussels on the planet. You grill the bivalves on a bed of dry pine needles. The pine smoke imparts an extraordinary fragrance and the theatrics are off the chart. Serve with a crisp dry Muscadet for a perfect dinner.
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What if I told you that one of the best dishes I ever tasted on planet barbecue
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contained only one ingredient? That it used a fuel you find in forests and parks everywhere
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and a grilling technique unique in the annals of barbecue. The French call it Éclad de Moulle, and I call it one of the best ways there is to cook mussels
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The muscle is a black-shell bival, particularly prized on the west coast of France
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When working with muscles, first, if you see any with partially open shells, tap them on the cutting board
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If the shell closes, you know the muscle is still alive and safe to eat
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If the muscle shell stays open, discard it. Cardinal rule with any shellfish, when in doubt, throw it out
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The next thing to look for is the beard. It's a cluster of fibers the muscle uses to cling to the rocks
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and if the muscle has a beard, grab it with needle-nosed pliers and pull it out
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At the restaurant La Bouvet on the Ilde Ré, an island off the west coast of France they actually use a cast skillet with holes in it the sort you would use for roasting chestnuts If you don have one you can make a hold pan
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Simply poke a series of holes in the bottom of the pan with a knife
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and twist to make holes about a half an inch in diameter
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Obviously, this is not a great thing to do to the blade of a knife you use every day
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Once you have perforated the bottom of the pan, loosely fill it with dry pine needles
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And you want to sort of feather the pine needles. That way, they'll catch fire more easily
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It's important that the pine needles be dry. Now, take the muscles and lay them on top of the pine needles
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and you want them fairly sparsely spread. about one pound of muscles per person
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And that's all there is to it. Now the grill. We working on a charcoal grill but you can also cook the muscles on a gas grill When working with charcoal I like to use natural lump charcoal
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You can see the shape of the original branch. And what you do is light it in a chimney starter
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Place either a piece of crumpled newspaper or a paraffin fire starter in the bottom
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Light it on the grill. Beauty of a chimney starter. The shape funnels the heat upward so the coals light even
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without having to use petroleum-based fire starter. And here's a chimney I lit earlier
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So simply dump out the coals and rake the coals into a mound in the center of the grill
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You want a hot fire. Then place the grill grate on top of the grill
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and you're ready for business. Then place the muscles on the grill
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directly over the charcoal, and they'll start to smoke almost instantly. What you want to do is you want the pine needles to catch fire
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and it's in this flash of blazing pine needles that the muscles cook
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The pine needles give the muscles an incredible piney smoke flavor And if you need to you can help the flaming process along by hitting the muscles with a butane lighter
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And once the pine needles flame, cover the muscles with another foil pan
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That holds in the heat and smoke. Cooking time is really quick. Five to eight minutes or just until the muscle shells open
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The beauty of this dish, you serve the muscles right in the pan with the burnt pie needles
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And you eat it with your bare fingers. Take one. Oh, my God
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Smoke muscles with that piney flavor. Unbelievable. And here's how they do it in France
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You take one set of empty muscle shells and then use them kind of as tongues
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and you eat another. And another. Muscles grilled on a bed of pine needles
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because sometimes grilling is best when it's at its most simple
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