Brad Makes Pickled Mussels

[Brad sniffing]

Oh, one of my favorite!

It smells like you could just put your face in,

like a cold day in a jetty,

and the water and the white washing...

Hey guys, and It's Alive up here

in my kitchen up in New England,

and we're gonna be doing a little picked mussels.

It's got leeks, some shallots, some aromatics,

olive oil, comes together real easy.

Eat with a cracker, some bread,

can mix it with some pasta, put it on some rice.

[cheery music]

Ah God, I love mussels.

I mean this is a recipe,

I certainly didn't go and invent it or anything.

You know, it's just a riff on tin mussels,

where they're always like very smokey and peppery,

pimento-y, kinda, I've always just loved those

and I wanted to do it with some mussels around here.

And that's where we're at.

I just love being able to, you know,

fool around with it.

You don't want to go to crazy.

[atonal music]

So we got some mussels here, real nice.

You know if you want, you can pick off,

they got that little bit of a beard sometimes,

that's like what they attach to.

How they grow them, or how they live,

attached to a rock or a rope.

It's harmless, you don't wanna go eating it,

I mean, you could try if you want.

But usually that just gets pulled off.

When you're storing mussels and you have them,

they need to breathe, they need to be cold,

they should be nice and tight like that.

And if they're opening and they're looking a little funky,

mostly if they're opening

and you can't get them to close by tapping them,

you're gonna want to discard those.

You know, always give them a good smell.

[sniffing deeply]

If they smell bad, then don't eat them.

We're just gonna dump them in the old steamer here.

Yeah, perfect, perfect.

Put the lid on there.

Let that start steaming again,

then I'm gonna turn it down

and just keep an eye on them

and let them just open up and cook, like 92.7%.

[elevator music]

All right, cool, so it's been about,

I'd say, what, four minutes?

That's what I'm talking about, nice.

Cooked, not all blown out and wrinkled up like a raisin.

They got a nice little meatiness to them.

Mm. Tender, sweet, briny ocean-ness.

I'd say they're done. I'm gonna pull them.

Such a slob.

Let's let this cool for a second, okay, and in the meantime

I'm gonna put my olive oil solution together.

I have a nice little leek here, little cute baby leek,

little shallot, I'm gonna slice those up.

I like them nice and thin.

They sweat out quick.

I mean the shallot, I think it's a little sweeter,

it has a little bit more of a delicacy.

A bit traditional as well, maybe.

And I'm just gonna bloom those,

sweat them out for a few minutes,

and then I'm gonna add in the garlic, the aromatics,

some really cool pepper that I got from Turkey.

I might even throw in a little dried, cured salami.

I think that'd be nice.

Just like four slices.

And I'm gonna just kind of put it into little strips.

So yeah, we got our olive oil,

then we're gonna add our veg,

and then I'm just gonna hit it with a little heat, you know.

Nothing crazy, just take the rawness off it

and keep it nice.

So let that go.

I'm gonna slice up the garlic while that heats.

We might go three with this one.

And then one we'll just crush as a soaker,

that thing can just hang in there.

And then look, we've got some fresh bay leaves,

little bit of thyme, little rosemary.

We'll bloom this at the end.

Let me start picking some mussels.

It's gonna take like a while.

I just sit here, talking to myself.

But look it, ah beautiful.

I mean, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

So mussels, look, so when they pop open,

it's attached to an inductor there, little muscle,

and you just kind of pop that off.

This one didn't open, and that's it.

I'm not gonna go forcing it.

You're gonna lose a couple, you know.

Maybe it's fine, maybe it's like the, ugh.

Every now and then, I'm not gonna lie,

if one just looks like really weird,

I just throw it right back, just get rid of it.

This is it, you know. Putting time in.

This is good, you got some friends,

have like a little mussel party.

[funky music]

All right, we're good.

And then look, we got our little bloom yum there,

a little olive oil with the shallots and leek.

And then look, we're gonna add the garlic in there,

soup-y sausage, our aromatics, secret weapon too,

we're gonna add a pinch of saffron.

Saffron is, if you're not familiar,

it's the little [pop noise]

what do they call it, like a pistola, of a flower, right?

The little [whistling] little pollen, yes stamen, maybe!

Yeah, maybe that's what it is!

Yeah, and that has a very unique, strong,

aromatic kind of flavor.

And I think it would be delightful

with these little components that we have.

I'm just gonna bring it up to heat for a minute,

just let that kind of bloom up.

And then for our spices, are similar to paprika,

I'm gonna open that baby up.

Ooh, yeah, that smells nice.

Look at the color on that, this is gonna be great.

We're going two teaspoons, little bit of pink peppercorn,

I'm gonna add a pinch of salt too.

And then as far as vinegar goes,

you can use whatever vinegar you want.

I prefer something kind of bright.

Champagne works great.

I'm gonna add that right to the oil mixture.

Heavy quarter cup.

So look, now we're nice and hot.

Off the heat, onto the meat.

[laughing, joke effect drums]

We're gonna pour the oil over the mussels

and then I'm gonna spoon in the solids.

Oh, look at that, huh?

I like the residual heat from that oil there

to kind of bring the party up to temperature

with the nice little melding of flavors

with the mussels, all that mussel juice,

all that mussel broth, and all those mussel flavors

and the paprika and the sausage,

but that's it.

I usually let it chill on the counter for 20 minutes

with the lid cracked or off

and then I keep it in the fridge

and you can either re-heat it,

eat it hot with whatever, or you can eat it,

we're just gonna eat it in like 15 minutes.

I'm gonna clean this mess up,

and then we're gonna have it with some crackers,

and sounds like a little tasty snack.

Take five, dude.

Make yourself a cup of Earl Gray tea

with a little bit of cream and some honey,

and we'll catch up in a few minutes.

[waiting music]

Is it chilly out?

Ooh, I'm putting a layer on.

I'll go back in the see-ers.

You cannot use this footage, I'll sue-

[waiting music]

All right, let's give it a shot, huh? Now it's an oily guy

and I always ruin my clothes with oil.

I like this sweatshirt, I like these pants.

I'm gonna eat it like, you know, a gyro.

[romantic piano music]

Mm, that's fantastic.

You know it's got the leeks in there,

lot of big flavors,

lot of big flavors like paprika and something like paprika,

lot of garlic, the brightness in the vinegar.

I'm gonna make another one, that was delicious.

Again, I think the biggest takeaway

is just to not overcook them, like look at that.

Look at this fricking' beauty.

Little pink peppercorn, little bit of leek.

[bleep]

Mm, these are really good.

Like make Chris Morocco proud kind of good.

You ever had someone comb your eyebrows before?

No.

Oh buddy, you ain't lived yet.

Is that true?

Oh it's good stuff.

Told me he loved me once.

Pickled mussels, easy to do, delicious.

Bring it to a party, bring it to uh...

Bring it wherever you want,

bring it out the middle of a cedar orchard.

Put that with a little spaghetti

or some rice noodles or something,

you know, throw some squid in there too.

Maybe a little clam.

You know, it's just fun for the whole family.

Check it out. Bon Appétit!

That's the outro, just the howling of the wind.

Oh and the truck.