Roy and I have been dying to make the "Eclade de moules," since we discovered the recipe in January. However, just could not coordinate schedules well enough and the people (since I do not eat mussels) to eat the creation until now. Flash back to January, Roy can be forgetful at times with plants. Therefore in January, his cute Christmas tree was a fire trap by the time the Christmas season was over and even more by the time I started chopping it into pieces for this project! Therefore, we were totally ready for this opportunity. We used the three pounds that the recipe called for but not the raspberry vinegar. We also were sharing the grill with Bavette avec sauce marchand de vin (wine merchant sauce) (p. 142-44), bacon and potato kebabs (also somewhere in the book), and lacha paratha (Indian puff pastry), so Rob, Stephanie, and Roy decided to grill in the following order: 1. Mussels- 2 batches 2. Kebabs 3. Steak and tomatoes 4. Lacha Paratha
Lacha Paratha- Roy has talked about this bread since I met him two years ago and was ecstatic when it was pointed out to him that it was included in the family project cookbook. However, the time involved made it a no in the go column on most occasions (because we did not plan ahead enough or lacked time). To have the bread ready for the grill, we needed to start 4 hours ahead and rose the dough in a warmed oven that was turned off once warm. To preserve the moisture, it was also loosely covered in plastic wrap. Since this was a joint project with Stephanie and Rob, (which made it more enjoyable) we cannot wait for their blog…. (picture above is the steaks and below the lacha paratha is next to the grill manned by Roy and Rob)
Thanks for finally posting about this :)
ReplyDeleteA couple additions from me:
-The mussels were delicious. We got them from Whole Foods, and in my mind they were better than a lot of restaurant mussels.
-The only thing wrong with them was they got cold too quickly. I don't know why but what I can think of:
-It says to serve them right away, and it means right away. We had to do two rounds because the pan was only big enough for half the mussels, so don't let that happen.
-It says to cook for 5-8 minutes, shade more to the 8 end. It is hard when the mini-forest fire is raging, but stick it out.
-A lot of the parathas came out good. Joan did all the work on the dough. Some things we learned:
-Dough should be rolled thin, or it won't start bubbling before the other side burns. Maybe 1/2 pancake thickness. Turn it within 10 sec of seeing it start to bubble.
-Best spot for it was around the rim of the coals. Right over the coals and it burned too fast, further out and it didn't cook.
-Book actually shows it cooking stuck to the wall of the tandoor. We'll have to try that with the Big Green Egg..
All of this sounds great! Spruce needles available anytime from the trees along our driveway so no need to wait until next Christmas to try this again!
ReplyDeleteI wonder about the inside of the Egg for the bread. I'll look on the Web to see if anyone has tried it.
Rob? Steph?