The recipe prepared for this week's assignment for
Whisk Wednesdays is from Class 23, Part 5:
Huîtres Chaudes au Muscadet (
Poached Oysters with Muscadet Sabayon Sauce). It can be found in the cookbook
Le Cordon Bleu at Home on pages 383-384.
This recipe is so good. Worth the price of the book for this recipe alone. Seriously.
First of all, I had never eaten oysters before, which is a little strange as I like seafood and have eaten a lot of things off menus I would not have thought I would ever eat: squid, octopus, shark, etc. Somehow oysters never seemed appealing.
Awhile ago I read a book on the oyster beds of New York and New Jersey and was absolutely enchanted. While reading the book was great, I was still not thinking of actually eating any of the oysters. I almost sat this one out, but I didn't want to let everyone else in the class down, and besides, those Whisk Chicks have a way of making everything sound good...they had all had oysters aplenty.
I ordered my Blue Point Oysters from my favorite seafood restaurant where they fly them in and waited for the day they were to arrive straight from the airport.
When I showed up, Rick was surrounded by lots and lots and lots of them. I decided I was going to just make half a recipe (12/24) in case no one liked them as we all were oyster virgins.
I said, "Those are alive, aren't they?" Rick just smiled and said, "Yep, they better be." I said, "Well, we are supposed to insert a knife, twist it around until the shell opens, and slice with the knife around the top to pry their little selves out." From the look on my face, he was quick with the "How about I do all that for you?" I was even quicker with "Really? Thanks, and can you save the liquid and the shells for me because I have things to do with those for the recipe?" He said, "Is this that French cooking class you are writing about?" When I told him it was our last week of seafood for a bit, he said, "Well, don't be a stranger...I was just getting used to having you come by every week." I am sure it was great entertainment as I had not a clue what I was doing each week...except with the mussels, of course.
So Rick murdered the oysters for me...all the other Whisk Chicks gained loads of experience doing that on their own. I did not, however, join up with this adventure with the intention of becoming a butcher, a fishmonger, or an oyster killer.
Home I came with the oysters and I followed the recipe exactly, well, except for the fact that I halved everything, and I did the spinach the only way the boys will eat it: barely wilted not steamed and cooked and then cooked again and then broiled, cooking it again. (The French really like to eat spinach well cooked...so far cooking it at least twice for each recipe.) That's way too much cooking of spinach for this household. They like it barely wilted, and trust me, it was delicious that way. We just barely cooked the oysters in their liquor by letting the liquid boil and then removing it and the oysters from the heat immediately, allowing them to cool in the juice before placing the oysters onto a little bed of the wilted spinach and tucking them back into their cleaned and washed half shells.
The sauce consisted of two parts, both delicious, and the next time, I can easily make a quarter of the sauce as I have plenty left over. It will not go to waste...I will think of something else to make with that sauce as it was very very good. I think the kids were willing to just sip it through a straw and have done with it in the moment if I would have let them.
The first part of the sauce is butter, shallots, Muscadet wine, creme fraiche, and a little pepper, all reduced to a syrupy consistency...OMW is this part good. The second part, a sabayon sauce (I had never made this kind of sauce before and was surprised that it was fairly easy and I did not scramble the eggs while they were cooking and whisking...it stayed liquid) cooked separately, consists of egg yolks and water...whisk, whisk, whisk, etc. until it is thick and ribbony, add clarified butter, whisk some more, and then add the shallot/wine/cream mixture, whisk some more, and then check for seasonings (I added just a pinch of salt and a little more pepper).
When the sauce all comes together, you spoon it all over the little selves resting on the wilted spinach back in their little shells.
I ran them under the broiler...it only literally takes a minute, and then I was going to plate them nicely and take a photo, but the guys were standing right there, plates in hand, pointing out the ones they wanted me to scoop onto their plates, and that was pretty much the end of any photo opportunities.
Everyone loved this recipe. I had made the dozen (well, 13 actually as Rick had thrown in an extra one), and I could easily have gotten rid of three times that amount with the way they were eating their three oysters and raving about them. We are all oyster fans now, and willing to try other recipes (not sure about eating them raw at this point, but cooked, YES!) Thanks to all my fellow Whisk Wednesday classmates for encouraging me to just dive in and make these and go at it with an open mind. I have got to start trusting them more!
Next Week's Assignment:
The next few assignments are Menus, so we are going to make the menu for one meal (hopefully), but then post each dish separately in its own week as posting it all at once seemed a bit much, following the schedule below.
Class 24: Menu #1 (Make in one session, if you can, between April 29 and May 6)
• Aubergines Bayildi (Gratin of Stuffed Eggplant) pages 255-256 (Post Wednesday, May 6, 2009)
• Rouelles de Veau Bourgeoise (Veal Shanks with Pearl Onions and Mushrooms) pages 18-19 (Post Wednesday, May 13, 2009)
• Gratin de Fruits au Marasquin (Fruit Gratin with Maraschino Liqueur) page 376 (Post Wednesday, May 20, 2009)