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Mussels Grilled on Pine Needles
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    • I call it the "pay dirt" moment -- the satisfying realization that comes when you walk up to a grill or sit down at a restaurant and know that your hunch was correct, that your journey (in this case, a five-hour drive from Spain to France ) was worth it; that you've come upon a remarkable, entirely new form of barbecue. The location was the Ile de Ré in the Charentes region. The dish in question was éclade, from the French verb éclore (to open, as a rosebud does), and it refers to fresh mussels grilled on a bed of flaming pine needles. The heat causes the mussels to open, while the smoke from the burning pine needles perfumes the shellfish in a way you can't even imagine. You eat the mussels with your fingers -- not a terribly French thing to do -- using an empty shell as pinchers to transfer the sweet bivalves from the shells to your mouth. To call the combination of sea saltiness and pine smoke sublime would be an understatement, and to wash the mussels down with anything less than a crisp, dry Muscadet would be criminal. Use the freshest mussels you can find. Of course, it helps that éclade originated in the Charentes region, which has been the epicenter of French mussel cultivation for seven hundred years.

    Ingredients

    Serves:

      • 3 pounds mussels in the shell (45 to 60 mussels)
      • 1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar (optional)
      • Melted butter (optional), for serving
      • ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT:
      • 2 quarts dried pine needles
      • Two 9 x 13–inch aluminum foil pans

    Directions

    Scrub the mussels well with a brush under cold running water, discarding any with cracked shells or shells that fail to close when tapped. Using needle-nose pliers, pull out and discard any clumps of black strings at the hinges of the mussels. Poke holes in the bottom of one of the foil pans with a screwdriver or knife tip, then twist it to make a A-inch hole. The holes should be spaced about 2 inches apart.

    Fill the perforated pan with the pine needles; they should be loosely mounded rather than tightly packed. Arrange the mussels on top.

    Set up the grill for direct grilling and preheat it to high. Ideally, you'll grill over a wood fire. Charcoal is the second best choice, but you can also grill the mussels on a gas grill.

    When ready to cook, place the pan with the mussels on the hot grate. The pine needles will start to smoke and catch fire after a few minutes. You may need to use a butane match or lighter to help ignite the pine needles. Once the pine needles have caught fire, place the second foil pan upside down over the mussels and pine needles.

    Check the mussels after a few minutes and once the shells begin to open, sprinkle the mussels with the raspberry vinegar, if desired. Cover the mussels again and grill them until the shells all open and the bivalves are cooked, 5 to 8 minutes total. The vinegar is optional (I don't bother with it).

    Transfer the smoking, steaming pan with the mussels to a heatproof platter and serve the mussels at once, discarding any that have not opened. You eat the mussels with your fingers right out of the pan. You can dip the mussels in melted butter, but you really don't need it.

    VARIATIONS:

    Eclades can also be made with vanets (bay scallops) -- Nantucketers, are you listening? -- or crépidules (slipper shells, also known as slipper limpets), a briny shellfish that migrated to France on the hulls of D-Day landing barges.

    Note: If you can't find pine needles, you can grill the mussels on a bed of hay. Can't find hay? For a really interesting, if not wholly authentic variation, arrange the mussels on oaked cedar planks and grill them using the indirect method over the highest possible heat. The cooking time will be 10 to 15 minutes.

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