• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 971 0

to strain it off into a pan and boil it down to a more acceptable flavour and consistency because the oysters will contribute their own delicious liquor to the sauce. When you are satisfied with the liquid, open the oysters – 18–24 for 6 people – add them, liquor and all, to the meat and mushroom ingredients. Taste and correct the seasoning. Then finish off the pudding in the usual way.

Oysters are equally delicious in steak and kidney pie.

OYSTERS IN A WHITE WINE SAUCE

Jonathan Swift tried his hand at verses for the women who cry their wares in and around Dublin. He wrote of Malahide herrings to be eaten with pure fresh butter and mustard – ‘their bellies are soft, and white as a custard’ – and of the erotic pleasures stimulated by oysters:

Charming Oysters I cry,

My Masters come buy,

So plump and so fresh

So sweet is their Flesh,

No Colchester Oyster,

Is sweeter and moister,

Your Stomach they settle,

And rouse up your Mettle,

They’ll make you a Dad

Of a Lass or a Lad;

And Madam your Wife

They’ll please to the Life;

Be she barren, be she old,

Be she Slut, or be she Scold,

Eat my Oysters, and lie near her,

She’ll be fruitful, never fear her.

I should not pin too much hope on this – except that oysters are said to be a most nourishing food, and excellent for your health in general. This latter proposition I find no difficulty in believing. The most exhilarating lunch in the world is a dozen large oysters, a glass or two of white wine, with bread and butter. After it, you feel light and ready for anything, well fed without fullness.

For dinner, especially dinner with friends who are not used to oysters and might not care to tackle them raw, try this way of cooking them that I came across in Ireland.

Serves 6

48 large oysters

375 ml (12–13 fl oz) dry white wine

30 g (1 oz) shallot, chopped

4 large egg yolks

250 g (8 oz) unsalted butter

300 ml (10 fl oz) double cream, whipped until almost stiff

salt, pepper

Open the oysters over a pan, dropping them in with their juice. Arrange eight deep shells on each of six oyster plates, or plates with a stabilizing layer of seaweed or pierced trencher of bread. Boil wine and shallot until there is barely a tablespoon of wine left. Cool to tepid, beat in the yolks, then beat in the very hot melted butter gradually, to make a hollandaise sauce*. Fold in the whipped cream off the heat and season.

Put oysters over the heat until just stiff – a few seconds. Drain – keeping liquor for another dish – and put into the shells. Cover each one with sauce and brown under the grill. Serve immediately.

NOTE Scallops can be used instead, allowing three in one shell to each person.

OYSTER LOAVES

Another of my favourite recipes for cooking oysters is an old one, popular here and in America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when oysters were abundant, were the food of the poor.

Serves 6

6 brioches or baps

150 g (5 oz) unsalted butter, melted

24–30 oysters, opened, drained, liquor reserved and strained

300 ml (10 fl oz) whipping cream or crème fraîche

cayenne pepper or Tabasco sauce

salt, freshly ground black pepper

lemon juice (optional)

Cut the lids neatly from the brioches or baps and take out the crumb, leaving a strong wall. Put 3 tablespoons of the butter into a small non-stick frying pan about 20 cm (8 inches) across. Use the rest to brush out the inside of the brioches or baps; any left over can be brushed over the outside. Put them on a baking sheet into the oven preheated to gas 7, 220°C (425°F) until they are crisp and nicely toasted. This takes about 10 minutes but the lids can catch easily, so be prepared to remove them after 5 minutes. Switch off the oven and leave the door ajar.

Meanwhile, stiffen the oysters briefly in the 3 tablespoons of butter. Scoop them out and cut them into halves, if large. Tip the oyster juice into the pan and boil it down to a strong essence. Stir in the cream or crème fraîche and bubble