Mussels GratinEe & Billi Bi

Mussels Gratinée

• Serves 6 as a first course

These mussels gratinée are seasoned with a garlic-herb butter, just like the classic French escargots, or snails. The mussels are first cooked in a little wine until they open and release their juices. Then the empty half shells are removed, leaving the mussels in the half shell, and they are covered with butter and topped with fresh bread crumbs. The mussels are finished under the broiler for a couple of minutes before serving as a first course. They can also be passed around as an hors d’oeuvre, usually six per person.

The juice of the mussels can be frozen for use in fish stew or soup or transformed into the delicious cold soup named Billi Bi. When I first came to the U.S. in 1959 and worked at Le Pavillon in New York City, we served that soup, which I never saw in any other restaurants. The story is that the soup was created by a cook in Normandy to honor an American GI after the liberation of France in 1945. The GI’s name (in the French translation) was Billi Bi. Serve the soup cold, garnished with chives. It is rich and delicious and should be served in small portions.

• 2 pounds mussels (about 36)
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1½ slices white bread
• 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
• ¼ cup loosely packed flat-leaf parsley
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• About 18 hazelnuts
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place the mussels and wine in a saucepan, cover, and bring to a boil. Stir and cook, covered, for about 2 minutes, until the mussels open. Remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes. Separate the shells and discard the empty ones. Strain the cooking liquid, add water if necessary to make 1½ cups, and reserve for the Billi Bi. Arrange the mussels in their half shells on a cookie sheet.

Process the bread in a food processor to make crumbs (you will have about 1 cup). Mix them with 2 teaspoons of the olive oil. Set aside.

Place the parsley, garlic, and hazelnuts in a food processor and process to a fine mixture. Add the butter, the remaining 2 tablespoons oil, the salt, and pepper and process until smooth.

Top each mussel with about a teaspoon of the butter mixture and sprinkle the bread crumbs on top.

At serving time, preheat the broiler. Broil the mussels, about 5 inches below the heat source, for 2 to 3 minutes, until nicely browned. Serve immediately.

Billi Bi

• Serves 3 as a first course

• 1½ cups reserved mussel juices from Mussels Gratinée
• 1½ teaspoons potato starch, dissolved in 3 tablespoons water
• ½ cup heavy cream
• ½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives, for garnish

Pour the mussel juices into a saucepan, add the dissolved potato starch, and bring to a boil. Stir in the cream, Tabasco, and salt (taste for salt first; you may need less or more than the amount called for, depending on the saltiness of the mussels). Pour the soup into a bowl and let cool, then refrigerate until chilled.

Divide the chilled soup among three small cups and serve with the chives sprinkled on top.