BBQ mussels

We had the BBQ premier for this season at a friend's place this weekend. It was nice but cold, as BBQ night usually are in Sweden, at least prior to July. Everybody brought what they wanted to BBQ and being who we are, we of course couldn't come with some plain ol' meat. Instead we ate these lovely blue mussels that we baked in foil over the BBQ.

The recipe comes from the lovely book Citrusköket by Caroline Hoffberg, which I'm sure I have raved about before. We made some minor changes, as usual.


Mussels pre BBQ-ing. I took an after picture as well, but it's too blurry - it was so cold I couldn't keep the camera still...

Mussels with chorizo and saffron

For 2

500 g fresh blue (common) mussels
1 dl dry vermouth

For the chorizo butter (which will melt into a lovely sauce...):
1 small shallot
50 g chorizo
75 g butter, at room temperature
Zest from ½ lemon
1 garlic clove
0,25 g saffron (½ "envelope" in Sweden)
2 tbsp chives
3 drops tabasco
Pinch of salt

Clean and sort the mussels, discard those not alive. Finely chop the shallot, chorizo, garlic and chives. Mix with the rest of the ingredients for the butter.

Place two large pieces of foil on top of each other. Place half of the mussels in the middle, pour half of the vermouth over them (fold the foil around the mussels first, to avoid alcohol abuse!) and top with half of the garlic butter. Fold the foil around the mussels into a package (keep the opening on top for easy eating later) and repeat the procedure with the remaining mussels, vermouth and butter.

Place over the BBQ (we used a "normal" one with coals), or bake in the oven at 250°C, for about 20 minutes. By that time, all the mussels should have opened - discard those that haven't. Serve with bread to soak up the tasty sauce.