Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [129]
Oyster Stuffing
enough for a 7 kg (14 lb) turkey
2–3 dozen oysters
300 g (10 oz) white breadcrumbs made from stale bread
150 g (5 oz) chopped suet
2 tablespoons heaped parsley
grated rind of 1 lemon
2 heaped teaspoons thyme
¼ teaspoon each mace, nutmeg
pinch of cayenne pepper
salt, pepper
2 large eggs, beaten
Open the oysters. Save their liquor for the oyster sauce which is usually served at the same time. Chop the oysters in four, so that the pieces are quite large. Mix them with the remaining ingredients, adding salt and pepper to taste. Stuff the bird and cook as usual.
Oyster Sauce
2 dozen oysters
60 g (2 oz) butter
2 tablespoons plain flour
300 ml (10 fl oz) milk
150 ml (5 fl oz) double cream
grated nutmeg
pinch of cayenne pepper
lemon juice
Open the oysters, saving their liquor carefully. Put it with the liquor from the stuffing oysters. Chop the oysters themselves into fairly large pieces. With the butter, flour, milk and cream make a smooth béchamel sauce*; add the oyster liquor and simmer for 20 minutes. Season to taste, and sharpen with a little lemon juice. Just before serving the sauce, stir in the chopped oysters – they will dilute it slightly. The sauce should be about the consistency of double cream or a little thinner.
SCALLOPED OYSTERS
Serves 4
24–32 oysters
12 teaspoons butter, melted
8 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 handful of chopped parsley
freshly ground black pepper
Open and rinse the oysters in their own juice. Drain them well, reserving the juice. Using a little of the melted butter, brush out four ramekins. Mix the breadcrumbs with the parsley; scatter a fine layer of crumbs into each dish, then put on 3 or 4 oysters, some more crumbs, a little pepper and a teaspoon of melted butter. Put 3 or 4 more oysters on top, then the last of the crumbs and butter. Strain the oyster liquid through a muslin and put a teaspoonful into each ramekin.
Stand the ramekins in a metal grill pan and place under a preheated grill until the top crumbs are lightly browned and the oysters are just firm.
† PERCH & YELLOW PERCH, WALLEYE, ZANDER & FOGAS
Perca fluviatilis & P. flavescens, Stizostedion vitreum, S. lucioperca
Perch of all kinds is undoubtedly worth pursuing, a most desirable fish; one fifteenth-century writer described it as ‘daynteous and holsom’. The snag is that one rarely finds any of the perch family for sale, even in France where sandre, the zander or pike-perch, is a special treat of the spring and early summer in Loire country. Fogas in Hungary is, I would judge, more widely sold at least on the shores of Lake Balaton. Obviously perch fishermen, across Europe to China, try to keep their treasure for themselves. As it has been placed next to salmon and trout for deliciousness, and sometimes above trout, one can hardly blame them for their piscatorial greed.
Americans have a better chance than we do in Europe, though the name perch spells confusion since it can include the redfish that we know in Britain, called ocean perch, the white perch which is a kind of bass and the surfperch of California, all unrelated species. However the yellow perch is very close to our European perch, and is to be found in quantity around Lake Erie; the Great Lakes, too, are the place for the walleye or walleye pike or yellow pike, the same fish under different names. Most confusing, as it is not a pike at all. It is much fished in Canada in the winter, and is an altogether delicious prospect for the cook who can use sole, trout and pike recipes as well as the ones given below.
Perches have a certain firmness of texture, which is most attractive, though it means you must take care not to overcook them. Small perch can simply be fried, or they