Plancha meets China: mussels with black bean sauce
Recipe Facts
Difficulty level:
easy ◉◉◎◎◎
Quantity for:
approx. 4 people
Preparation time:
⧗ individual
Grilling time:
⧗ individual
Grill(s) & Equipment:
• Fire plate or plancha
Ingredients
• 400 g fresh mussels
• Oil for the plancha
For the sauce:
• 50 ml oil
• 4 g garlic
• 20 g spring onions
• 80 g shallots
• 1 fresh red chili pepper
• 8 g fermented black beans
made of glass or can (Asian shop)
• 50 ml rice wine
• 30 ml light soy sauce
• 100 ml water
• 100 ml chicken broth
• 12 g sugar
• Corn starch with a little water
mixed to bind
• Sesame oil to taste
preparation
➊ Rinse mussels with clean water and remove any sand, discard any damaged mussels. Tap slightly open mussels with a spoon. If they close, they are alive and edible. If not, discard them. Remove the "beard" of the mussels with a kitchen knife and rinse the mussels again with clean water.
➋ Rinse the black beans, drain and chop roughly. Finely chop the garlic, shallots and spring onions, cut the chili peppers into thin rings. Heat a small pan with the oil on the plancha and sauté the chopped ingredients until the shallots have turned translucent. Then add the remaining sauce ingredients and bring to the boil briefly, thicken with the cornstarch-water mixture, season with the sesame oil, remove the pan from the plancha and set aside.
➌ Place the cleaned mussels on the hot plancha with a little oil and cover with a cooking hood. Let them fry for 5 minutes. Move the cooking hood back and forth a little so that the heat is evenly distributed inside. Now add the bean sauce and mix everything well, put the cooking hood back on and let it cook for a short while until all the mussels are open - if some mussels are still closed, sort them out before serving.
Recipe by Ben Mac Gillavry
The "Masters of fire" Ben has his roots on the island of Java and specializes in Indonesian, Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. He loves cooking for others, and has been doing so in his own business since 2005. Ben only cooks with fresh ingredients and puts together his own spice mixtures, without which an authentic Asian meal cannot be prepared.
Recipe from FIRE&FOOD issue 03/2017