How to make it
First light your BBQ, you want to cook your mussels at a temperature of about 160/180 degrees.
Washing the mussels, and your hands of course. Put the tub of mussels under the cold tap and rinse them well. If there are any barnacles on them remove these as you don't want those in your mussels.
Now put the peeled tomatoes in the roasting tray, squeeze them nicely with your hands or mash briefly with a fork. Don't mash too finely, you want the tomatoes to keep a bit of their structure.
Cut the onion into half rings, the spring onion into pieces, the carrot into slices of 2mm, and the garlic finely. Also finely chop the basil and add this to the roasting tray. Tip: cut your fresh herbs with a sharp knife and don't go hacking away like a caveman. This keeps the flavours better preserved!
Empty the bottle of beer, add the capers, white wine vinegar and crumble the vegetable stock cube into the roasting tray and mix everything together well.
Now you're completely ready, go to your BBQ, which should be at about 180 degrees. Place the roasting tray on the grate and cook the contents of the tray for about 10 to 15 min until the carrot is al dente. Sprinkle a small handful of smoking wood into the charcoal every 5 minutes to add extra smoky flavour.
Once the carrot is al dente, drain the last liquid off your mussels and put them in the roasting tray and mix the contents of the tray with the mussels.
After about 10 minutes the mussels will be fully open. Try one to check if the doneness is as you like. If not, leave them a bit longer until the mussels are done enough. Once ready, let them cool for a few minutes, and mix the liquid with the mussels one last time.
Cut the ciabatta in half or cut into pieces of 3 cm
Pour some olive oil onto a plate with a raised edge and dip the pieces of ciabatta on both sides in the oil
Place the ciabatta on the grate for about 4 minutes per side until the ciabatta is nice and crispy.
Done? Take them off the BBQ, cut a clove of garlic in half and rub it well into the bread so you get a deliciously fragrant garlic bread.
Put 4 good tablespoons of mayonnaise in a small bowl and add the 2 tsp curry powder and 1 tsp garlic granules. If you're not that into curry, start with 1 tsp. For the garlic you could also start with half and slowly build up the flavour. The garlic always needs to sit for a bit, keep that in mind.
Finally add the liquid from the jar of capers to the bowl and stir until nice and smooth for that final kick in your sauce.
