Skip to main content Skip to footer site map

Special

Jacques Pépin Makes Moules Two Ways

Premiere: 12/2/2021 | 00:05:22 |

Pépin demonstrates two ways of making mussels. His recipe for moules marinière includes garlic, white wine, onions, seasonings and herbs. It becomes a moules poulette when it is finished with a bit of cream and starch for a slightly thickened sauce.

About the Episode

“The most classic mussels served in bistros in France are Moules Marinière—that is, sailor style—and very often, especially in Belgium, these are served with French fries. I’m showing you how to cook the Mussels or Moules Marinière and Poulettes, which involves removing one of the shells and serving with a cream sauce—delicious over pasta, rice or couscous to soak up the sauce.” —Jacques Pépin

Moules Marinière
Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 pounds mussels (about 40)
¾ cup white wine
¾ cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced, about 2 teaspoons
½ teaspoon herbes de Provence or Italian seasoning
3 to 4 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch salt
½ teaspoon pepper

Method:

Wash the mussels and place in a deep sauté pan or saucepan. Add the wine, onion, garlic, herbes de Provence, parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper. Bring to a strong boil, cover and cook until the mussels open, about 5 minutes. Shake the pan, and if any of the mussels haven’t opened, cover again and continue to cook for another 2 or 3 minutes. Discard any mussels that haven’t opened. Spoon the mussels into two large bowls, pour the juices over them and serve immediately.

Moules Poulette
Serves 2

Serving the mussels on the half shell, lightly thickening the juices from the mussels and adding a little cream elevates Moules Marinière to Moules Poulette. Serve this dish as is or over pasta, couscous or even rice.

Ingredients:

1 recipe of Moules Marinière
1½ teaspoons potato starch
1 tablespoon water
¼ cup heavy cream
Chopped chives, for garnish

Method:

After the mussels are cooked, pour them through a large strainer set over a bowl, reserving the juices. Open the mussels, discard the top shell and arrange them on a large platter. Return the juices to the same pan and set over high heat. Bring to a boil and simmer until it has reduced to about 1½ cups. In a small bowl, stir the potato starch and water together and drizzle it into the liquid, stirring. Add the cream and stir. Pour over the mussels, sprinkle with chives and serve.

QUOTE

"I feel that if Jacques Pépin shows you how to make an omelet, the matter is pretty much settled. That’s God talking. "

— Anthony Bourdain

TRANSCRIPT

TRANSCRIPT

(bright music) - Hi, I'm Jacques Pépin, and this is 'American Masters at Home.'

Simplest way to do mussels is the moules marinière, so called.

You get that in all the bistros in France, certainly in Belgium.

It's a very easy way of doing it.

Basically, I count a pound of mussels per person.

So I have here, garlic.

Crush it to remove the skin.

Crush it to remove the skin again, this one.

I need about... Here we are.

Yeah, about a good two teaspoons of garlic here.

Okay.

In there, I have my two pounds of mussels.

I'm going to put about three quarters of a cup of white wine.

How about three quarters, three quarters of a cup of chopped onion.

A bit of herbes de Provence, or Italian seasoning, the same way.

About three, four tablespoons of parsley.

Dash of salt.

We can always put more salt after, depending on the seasoning of your mussels.

Some mussels are, of course, more salt than others.

Pepper, and that's it.

This is going to come to a boil.

As soon as it boils, cover.

Stir it a couple of times.

They are going to open.

It takes five, six minutes.

They will open, and that's the way we serve them, the moules marinière, straight.

Okay. That's about it.

Now I put a tablespoon of olive oil here.

Should have put it at the beginning.

This is a way, so called, moules marinière.

You're going to add.

In the bistro in France, in Belgium, you do a lot of juice with that.

And it's always served with French fries in Belgium.

So this is the moules marinière.

However, we're going to do another dish called moules poulette, And for that, we're going to separate each of the shell.

I'm gonna put it in there and put back the juice in there.

I'm gonna thicken this, reduce it a little bit and thicken it, and then finish it with a bit of cream.

That will be called the moules poullete.

P-O-U-L-L-E-T-E.

So here for the time being, we're going to open this.

Sometimes your mussels, some time of the year are much bigger than some other time of the year.

And that beautiful whitish or golden color, they change during the year.

Highly seasoned, yeah.

And now, I'm going to put a teaspoon and a half of potato starch.

Or they say you can do the roux, even flour.

The tablespoon or so of water.

This is the type of thing that when you dilute this, you add that to a sauce, and they thicken on contact, as soon as they touch it, so it's very easy to use.

You can see the mixture now.

It's kind of oily, just about the way you want it.

Into that, we're going to put about a quarter of a cup of heavy cream.

Yep, more than enough.

And the moules poullete here, it's not done very often, but it's great on pasta, like you had clam and pasta, you would serve that on pasta, or with rice, with noodle, with couscous.

Any of this will work pretty well.

Taste it, bring it to a boil.

Absolutely delicious.

So here is the moules poullete.

We are going to put it on top of it here.

That would be two very, very generous portions.

Put a bit of chives on top.

The moules poullete.

Happy cooking.

(bright music) Thank you for joining me.

For more, subscribe to this channel, or watch here.

Thank you, and happy cooking.