Big Sur Bakery Cookbook - Michelle Wojtowicz [76]
When all the fish are ready, place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the flesh of the trout has turned opaque. Let them rest for 2 minutes. Then carefully transfer the baked trout to a cutting board, and using a sharp knife, halve each fish crosswise so that your guests can appreciate the trout’s pinkish color and its spinach center. Arrange the trout on a platter, drizzle with the Meyer lemon dressing, and serve.
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Grilled Oysters with Champagne Mignonette
Our philosophy on oysters is that they should be sucked down, not eaten with tiny forks. And while we love raw oysters, we also like spicing things up a bit. So when Phil heard that Native Americans used to cook oysters over a fire, we decided to try sticking them in the wood-fired oven. It turns out that the heat plumps the oysters up and makes them easier to shuck, and serving them this way sometimes wins over people who are squeamish about eating them raw. Here we’ve adapted our recipe for a wood-fired grill. The trick is to cook the oysters only until they warm up and steam slightly in their shells. You don’t want them to open on the grill because if they do, you’ll lose the tasty juice called “oyster liquor.”
At the Bakery, we serve our oysters in lucky sevens, but if you prefer to eat your oysters in groups of a different number, don’t let us stop you. “Mignonnette” is French for “peppercorn,” and a mignonette sauce consists of cracked black pepper, vinegar, and minced shallots. In this recipe, we add a splash of champagne for fizz. When it comes to oysters, we like medium-size ones like Oysterville Select out of Washington, Fanny Bay from British Columbia, or the smaller Kumamoto from Point Reyes.
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INGREDIENTS
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
¼ cup champagne vinegar
¼ cup champagne
2 teaspoons minced shallot
1 teaspoon minced flat-leaf parsley
28 medium oysters
Serves 4
Preheat the grill 30 minutes in advance, burning the wood down until you have a red-hot coal base. (See backmatter for preparing a wood-fired grill.)
While the grill is heating, crack the peppercorns by placing them on a flat surface, like a cutting board, and pressing them with the flat bottom of a heavy pan until they split into pieces. Combine the peppercorns, champagne vinegar, champagne, shallots, and parsley in a bowl. That’s your mignonette.
Once the grill is hot, place the oysters directly on the grate with the flat shell up. Grill the oysters until the shell starts to dry out and look calcified—on an open flame, they will warm through in less than 3 minutes. Remove them from the grill and let them cool slightly.
Line a platter with a linen napkin (this will prevent the oyster shells from sliding).
If you’ve never shucked an oyster before, don’t despair: it’ll take a couple of broken shells to get the hang of it. Cover one hand with a towel, and hold an oyster, flat shell up, in that hand. Rest your hand on a flat surface. With the other hand, insert an oyster knife in the connecting muscle between the flat shell and the cup, and turn the knife to separate the shells. Discard the flat shell. Use the knife to loosen the oyster from the cup, being careful not to drip any of the oyster liquor. As you shuck them, arrange the oysters, in their shells, on the napkin-lined platter. Drizzle each oyster with some of the mignonette, making sure to get shallots and crushed peppercorns on all of the oysters. Serve immediately.
Variation
Substitute the Meyer lemon dressing for the mignonette, and garnish the oysters with finely minced chives.
Photographs by Sara Remington
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Shrimp Bisque with Basil Toast
A bisque is traditionally a shellfish soup that’s thickened with pulverized shells. We make ours with white shrimp that’s sustainably farm-raised in the Gulf of Mexico. We like