Jane Grigson’s Moules Farcies
In this classic seafood recipe from Jane Grigson, mussels are topped with a butter-rich breadcrumb, garlic and shallot mix and finished under the grill.
Introduction
I do not apologize for repeating what is after all the best of all mussel dishes. If you have not tried mussels before, start with this recipe. Needless to say it can be adapted to oysters and large clams. Indeed the recipe originated with clams.
Ingredients
| 64 | large mussels, scraped, opened by method below |
| 2 large cloves | garlic, halved |
| 1 | shallot, quartered |
| 1 bunch of | parsley, leaves only |
| thinly cut zest of ½ lemon | |
| 250g (8oz) | unsalted butter, cubed |
| salt, pepper | |
| fresh breadcrumbs |
Method
Pick over the mussels and remove any that are cracked or that remain obstinately open when tapped with a sharp knife. Occasionally you will come across a mussel that is extraordinarily heavy for its size: this usually means it is full of tarry mud. Either throw it away, or open it separately if you are not quite sure.
Scrub the mussels under the cold tap, then scrape off any barnacles and accretions. Remove the fine black ‘beard’ with a sharp tug and rinse the mussels in a large bowl of cold water.
Have ready a colander set over a basin to take the mussels as they are opened.
Turn the heat on your hob to very high. Take a wide heavy sauté pan and put in a close single layer of mussels. Put on the lid. Set over the heat and leave for 30 seconds. Check to see if the mussels are open. Remove any that are, put back the lid and leave for another 10 seconds. The point is to give the mussels the minimum time possible over the heat (ignore cookery book instructions suggesting 2 minutes or even longer: this is unnecessary if you open mussels in single layer batches). When all are opened, remove and cook the next and subsequent batches.
Finally strain the mussel liquor through doubled muslin or other cloth to remove the sandy grit and mud.
Discard half the mussel shells, leaving the mussels on the half-shell. Make sure they are cut free.
In the processor, or by chopping, reduce garlic, shallot, parsley and lemon zest to a crumble and mix with the butter. Season. Put a dab of this mixture on top of each mussel.
Arrange the mussels on dimpled shellfish plates if you have them, or cut eight trenches of bread and make eight holes in each with an apple corer so that the mussels can rest steady, without wobbling. Put under a hot grill. As the butter melts, pull out the grill pan and scatter lightly with breadcrumbs. Put back to brown lightly and bubble. Serve immediately. (If your grill is small, arrange the mussels on two baking sheets and put them in a hot oven to melt the butter. Then finish them off under the grill, one at a time.)
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