Showing posts with label oysters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oysters. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Monday, November 25, 2013
Creamed Oysters On Toasted Cornbread
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If you are of a certain age, you will remember these fondly, especially at this time of the year.
Oysters have been an important part of a Thanksgiving menu since the Indians brought them to that first three day celebration with the Pilgrims in 1620. They were particularly popular in New York and New England. During the heyday of New York’s oyster production (In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the city’s waters produced around 700 million oysters a year) East Coast cookbooks unanimously and prominently featured oysters on the Thanksgiving Day. menu.
The trend seems to have taken a real upswing in the Gilded Age and endured — at least in the cookbooks sampled — until around WWII. What happened then? They probably became too much of a luxury, I suppose, and in the city, the local beds were long since polluted and harvested into depletion.
This particular recipe used to be a classic in the mid 1900,s but it too disappeared from everyone's radar. Perhaps people got tired of it or oysters became prohibitively expensive to serve for a group. Those who know about the good things in life have not forgotten them. You can buy them shucked, in their liquid, in the Fish section of most grocery stores. They are not that expensive and taste very fresh. If you want to impress a group of gourmets sometime, I suggest you serve them. I, on the other hand, am trying to singlehandedly revive them. It's simply too good a recipe to shelve. Aside from Thanksgiving, Creamed Oysters make for a wonderful lunch, served with a salad. The cornbread is a new twist on the usual thin toast over which they are serve. It is not my idea. It is Gourmet's.
Readers know that this time next week I will be entertaining my grandchildren for Thanksgiving for the first time ever. For this occasion, they will be the guests of honors and will be catered to in every which way a grandmother knows how to do, but to a certain extent. Yes they will be privy to all the things Lindaraxa enjoyed as a child but they will also sit at the table and hopefully behave like their parents have trained them to. I did not get to sit with the grown ups until after I was eight but parents these days are different so we must adapt. Compromise, my favorite new word.
I enjoyed a small sample for lunch today after I shot these photos. Yep. that's my plate. I had every intention of bringing out the silver and staging a more professional shoot, but promptly gave up. They looked too good to pass up.
If you are of a certain age, you will remember these fondly, especially at this time of the year.
Oysters have been an important part of a Thanksgiving menu since the Indians brought them to that first three day celebration with the Pilgrims in 1620. They were particularly popular in New York and New England. During the heyday of New York’s oyster production (In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the city’s waters produced around 700 million oysters a year) East Coast cookbooks unanimously and prominently featured oysters on the Thanksgiving Day. menu.
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| Fanny Farmer"s |
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| The Plaza Hotel 1899 |
The trend seems to have taken a real upswing in the Gilded Age and endured — at least in the cookbooks sampled — until around WWII. What happened then? They probably became too much of a luxury, I suppose, and in the city, the local beds were long since polluted and harvested into depletion.
This particular recipe used to be a classic in the mid 1900,s but it too disappeared from everyone's radar. Perhaps people got tired of it or oysters became prohibitively expensive to serve for a group. Those who know about the good things in life have not forgotten them. You can buy them shucked, in their liquid, in the Fish section of most grocery stores. They are not that expensive and taste very fresh. If you want to impress a group of gourmets sometime, I suggest you serve them. I, on the other hand, am trying to singlehandedly revive them. It's simply too good a recipe to shelve. Aside from Thanksgiving, Creamed Oysters make for a wonderful lunch, served with a salad. The cornbread is a new twist on the usual thin toast over which they are serve. It is not my idea. It is Gourmet's.
Readers know that this time next week I will be entertaining my grandchildren for Thanksgiving for the first time ever. For this occasion, they will be the guests of honors and will be catered to in every which way a grandmother knows how to do, but to a certain extent. Yes they will be privy to all the things Lindaraxa enjoyed as a child but they will also sit at the table and hopefully behave like their parents have trained them to. I did not get to sit with the grown ups until after I was eight but parents these days are different so we must adapt. Compromise, my favorite new word.
I enjoyed a small sample for lunch today after I shot these photos. Yep. that's my plate. I had every intention of bringing out the silver and staging a more professional shoot, but promptly gave up. They looked too good to pass up.
Creamed Oysters on Toasted Corn Bread
Serves 8 as a first course
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup minced shallot
- 1/2 cup minced celery plus 3 tablespoons finely chopped celery leaves
- 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 32 shucked oysters, reserving 1 1/4 cups of the liquor, strained
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon ground celery seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
- 8 squares of corn bread, split, toasted, and buttered
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In a large heavy saucepan cook the shallot and the minced celery in the butter over moderate heat, stirring, until the vegetables are softened, add the flour, and cook the mixture over moderately low heat, stirring, for 3 minutes. Stir in the reserved oyster liquor, the milk, and the cream, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring, and simmer it, stirring, for 3 minutes. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, the celery seeds, the cayenne, the oysters, and salt to taste, simmer the mixture for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the edges of the oysters curl, and stir in the celery leaves.
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Arrange a bottom half of a corn bread square on each of 8 heated plates, spoon the creamed oysters over the bottom halves, and top them with the remaining halves.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Fried Oyster BLT Sliders
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One of the things I am most grateful to the South for is introducing me to fried oysters. I have always been an oyster lover, particularly Bluepoints, something I used to have often when I lived in New York. The Plaza Hotel's Oyster Bar was famous for their Bluepoints but you could really get a fresh dozen in most good restaurants.. Unfortunately raw oysters have to be at their freshest and I simply don't trust them when I am landlocked. Fortunately for me this is fried oyster country and it's easy to find pints already shucked at your local supermarket. How do I now they are fresh? Simple, they can't keep them in stock. By Sunday morning they are gone until the next shipment on Tuesday afternoon.
These oyster sliders are made with oysters, bacon, mayonnaise, tomatoes, lettuce, and horseradish. Frankly, most of the time I skip the bacon. It feels somewhat like gilding the lily but I guess I couldn't call this a BLT unless bacon was in the mix.
To my Northern readers who are used to such fantastic fresh oyster (they know who they are) give fried oysters a try sometime. You will not be sorry.
Ingredients:
* peanut or vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup yellow or white cornmeal
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/8 teaspoon pepper
*dash of cayenne
* 1/2 pint of shucked oysters (figure on two or three per sandwich, depending on the bread)
* 1/2 cup mayonnaise
* 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
* 4 rolls, or 8 brioche or white bread toasted
* 4 thin slices tomatoes
* 4 slices crisp cooked bacon
* lettuce leaves
Preparation:
Melt about an inch of oil in a large heavy skillet. Combine cornmeal, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Coat oysters with the cornmeal mixture. Shake excess. Fry oysters in oil until lightly browned on all sides. Do not crowd. Do them in batches if needed. Mix mayonnaise with horseradish. Spread 4 buns with the mayonnaise mixture. Cover with tomato slices, and then bacon. Cover with lettuce leaves then arrange oysters over lettuce. Secure with wooden picks and trim crusts if using toast.
Alternatively, you can serve the oysters on a plate with everything served separately so that everyone can make their own.
Photo: Marx Foods via The Examiner
One of the things I am most grateful to the South for is introducing me to fried oysters. I have always been an oyster lover, particularly Bluepoints, something I used to have often when I lived in New York. The Plaza Hotel's Oyster Bar was famous for their Bluepoints but you could really get a fresh dozen in most good restaurants.. Unfortunately raw oysters have to be at their freshest and I simply don't trust them when I am landlocked. Fortunately for me this is fried oyster country and it's easy to find pints already shucked at your local supermarket. How do I now they are fresh? Simple, they can't keep them in stock. By Sunday morning they are gone until the next shipment on Tuesday afternoon.
These oyster sliders are made with oysters, bacon, mayonnaise, tomatoes, lettuce, and horseradish. Frankly, most of the time I skip the bacon. It feels somewhat like gilding the lily but I guess I couldn't call this a BLT unless bacon was in the mix.
To my Northern readers who are used to such fantastic fresh oyster (they know who they are) give fried oysters a try sometime. You will not be sorry.
Ingredients:
* peanut or vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup yellow or white cornmeal
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/8 teaspoon pepper
*dash of cayenne
* 1/2 pint of shucked oysters (figure on two or three per sandwich, depending on the bread)
* 1/2 cup mayonnaise
* 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
* 4 rolls, or 8 brioche or white bread toasted
* 4 thin slices tomatoes
* 4 slices crisp cooked bacon
* lettuce leaves
Preparation:
Melt about an inch of oil in a large heavy skillet. Combine cornmeal, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Coat oysters with the cornmeal mixture. Shake excess. Fry oysters in oil until lightly browned on all sides. Do not crowd. Do them in batches if needed. Mix mayonnaise with horseradish. Spread 4 buns with the mayonnaise mixture. Cover with tomato slices, and then bacon. Cover with lettuce leaves then arrange oysters over lettuce. Secure with wooden picks and trim crusts if using toast.
Alternatively, you can serve the oysters on a plate with everything served separately so that everyone can make their own.
Photo: Marx Foods via The Examiner
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Antoine's Best Kept Secret...Oysters Rockefeller
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I was looking for a typical New Orleans recipe to celebrate the Saint's victory at last Sunday's Super Bowl when I came across this earth shattering revelation: the original recipe for Oysters Rockefeller did not have spinach! Antoine's, the renown New Orleans restaurant where the recipe was created in 1899 still guards the recipe to such an extent that it does not appear in their cookbook. I was knocked off my socks. Did you know this? Am I, like the cheated wife, the last one to find out?
Oysters Rockefeller is a famous oyster dish served at many restaurants throughout the United States. The dish consists of oysters on the half-shell that have been topped with various other ingredients (often spinach or parsley, cheese, a rich butter sauce and bread crumbs) and are then baked or broiled. Contrary to whatever you have heard before, the original recipe did not contain spinach!
"Oysters Rockefeller was created at the New Orleans restaurant Antoine's. Antoine's was founded in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore, who moved to New Orleans after two frustrating years in New York to open a restaurant of his own. It is the country's oldest family-run restaurant. The dish was created in 1899 by Jules Alciatore, son of the restaurant's founder.
The dish was named Oysters Rockefeller after John D. Rockefeller, the richest American at the time, for the richness of the sauce. The original recipe is a secret, the sauce is known to be a puree of a number of green vegetables other than spinach. It consists of oysters on the half-shell topped with the sauce and bread crumbs and then baked or broiled. Jules Alciatore developed Oysters Rockefeller in the face of a shortage of French snails, substituting the locally available oysters for snails. Antoine's has been serving the original recipe dish since 1899. It is estimated that Antoine's has served over three million, five hundred thousand orders.
Though many New Orleans restaurants serve dishes purporting to be Oysters Rockefeller, Antoine's claims that no other restaurant has been able to successfully duplicate the recipe. Knock-off versions of the dish have proliferated in New Orleans, developed to capitalize on the fame of Antoine's signature dish, but because the recipe for Oysters Rockefeller was passed down from the creator, Jules Alciatore of Antoine's to his children, and has apparently never left the family's hands, competing restaurants have had to formulate their own recipes.
Alton Brown of The Food Network series Good Eats states in the episode titled "Shell Game" that Jules Alciatore took the original recipe with him to the grave, and any version of the recipe that exists today is only an assumption, based on descriptions of the original dish. While many have achieved the trademark green color of the original — a color easily attainable by using spinach in the recipe — it is said that few get the flavor of Antoine's recipe right. Antoine's chefs have repeatedly denied that the authentic recipe contains spinach. A 1986 laboratory analysis by William Poundstone in Bigger Secrets indicated that the primary ingredients were parsley, pureed and strained celery, scallions or chives (indistinguishable in a food lab), olive oil, and capers.
Malcolm Hebert, native Louisianan, cookbook author and wine and food editor, also indicates that the original recipe did not have spinach and takes issue with the addition of Herbsaint. He claims that it is not possible that Herbsaint was in the original 1899 recipe, as it was first made in 1935. However, Pernod which is in many recipes easily pre-dates the year Oysters Rockefeller was created." (Wikipedia)
Wow, what is this world coming to. Next they are going to tell me there is no Santa Claus!
There is really nothing to it. It is the perfect recipe if you want to impress that special someone. Winter is the time for the best oysters and Valentine's Day the perfect occasion.
Congratulations New Orleans Saints on a victory well deserved!
Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup bread crumbs, Panko preferred
2 shallots, chopped
2 cups chopped fresh spinach
1/4 cup Pernod
Salt and pepper, to taste
Dash red pepper sauce (Tabasco)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon chopped chervil or parsley
2 dozen oysters, on the half shell
Rock salt
Lemon wedges, for garnish
Directions
Melt butter in a skillet. Saute the garlic for 2 minutes to infuse the butter. Place the bread crumbs in a mixing bowl and add half the garlic butter, set aside. To the remaining garlic butter in the skillet, add shallots and spinach, cook for 3 minutes until the spinach wilts. Deglaze the pan with Pernod. Season with salt and pepper, add a dash of red pepper sauce. Allow the mixture to cook down for a few minutes. Finish off the bread crumbs by mixing in olive oil, Parmesan and chervil, season with salt and pepper.* Spoon 1 heaping teaspoon of the spinach mixture on each oyster followed by a spoonful of the bread crumb mixture. Sprinkle a baking pan amply with rock salt. Arrange the oysters in the salt to steady them. Bake in a preheated 450 degree F oven for 10 to 15 minutes until golden. Serve with lemon wedges and red pepper sauce.
Make Ahead Note*:
You can place both mixes in separate baggies and place in the refrigerator until ready to bake. Go to the fishmonger that day, get him to shuck some oysters for you (talk him into giving you some crushed ice or rock salt) distribute the two mixes on top and bake. Now, how easy can that be?
Recipe Source: Tyler Florence
Oysters Rockefeller is a famous oyster dish served at many restaurants throughout the United States. The dish consists of oysters on the half-shell that have been topped with various other ingredients (often spinach or parsley, cheese, a rich butter sauce and bread crumbs) and are then baked or broiled. Contrary to whatever you have heard before, the original recipe did not contain spinach!
Antoine's
History"Oysters Rockefeller was created at the New Orleans restaurant Antoine's. Antoine's was founded in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore, who moved to New Orleans after two frustrating years in New York to open a restaurant of his own. It is the country's oldest family-run restaurant. The dish was created in 1899 by Jules Alciatore, son of the restaurant's founder.
The Rex Room at Antoine's
The dish was named Oysters Rockefeller after John D. Rockefeller, the richest American at the time, for the richness of the sauce. The original recipe is a secret, the sauce is known to be a puree of a number of green vegetables other than spinach. It consists of oysters on the half-shell topped with the sauce and bread crumbs and then baked or broiled. Jules Alciatore developed Oysters Rockefeller in the face of a shortage of French snails, substituting the locally available oysters for snails. Antoine's has been serving the original recipe dish since 1899. It is estimated that Antoine's has served over three million, five hundred thousand orders.
Antoine's Large Annex Room
Alton Brown of The Food Network series Good Eats states in the episode titled "Shell Game" that Jules Alciatore took the original recipe with him to the grave, and any version of the recipe that exists today is only an assumption, based on descriptions of the original dish. While many have achieved the trademark green color of the original — a color easily attainable by using spinach in the recipe — it is said that few get the flavor of Antoine's recipe right. Antoine's chefs have repeatedly denied that the authentic recipe contains spinach. A 1986 laboratory analysis by William Poundstone in Bigger Secrets indicated that the primary ingredients were parsley, pureed and strained celery, scallions or chives (indistinguishable in a food lab), olive oil, and capers.
Malcolm Hebert, native Louisianan, cookbook author and wine and food editor, also indicates that the original recipe did not have spinach and takes issue with the addition of Herbsaint. He claims that it is not possible that Herbsaint was in the original 1899 recipe, as it was first made in 1935. However, Pernod which is in many recipes easily pre-dates the year Oysters Rockefeller was created." (Wikipedia)
Wow, what is this world coming to. Next they are going to tell me there is no Santa Claus!
*******
I have now looked through a bunch of recipes for Oysters Rockefeller searching for more clues They all use mostly the same ingredients, butter, breadcrumbs, onions, Pernod, spinach, watercress, parsley. Some add Parmesan cheese at the end and although I seriously doubt this was in the original, I think it adds a nice touch.There is really nothing to it. It is the perfect recipe if you want to impress that special someone. Winter is the time for the best oysters and Valentine's Day the perfect occasion.
Congratulations New Orleans Saints on a victory well deserved!
Oysters Rockefeller
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup bread crumbs, Panko preferred
2 shallots, chopped
2 cups chopped fresh spinach
1/4 cup Pernod
Salt and pepper, to taste
Dash red pepper sauce (Tabasco)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon chopped chervil or parsley
2 dozen oysters, on the half shell
Rock salt
Lemon wedges, for garnish
Directions
Melt butter in a skillet. Saute the garlic for 2 minutes to infuse the butter. Place the bread crumbs in a mixing bowl and add half the garlic butter, set aside. To the remaining garlic butter in the skillet, add shallots and spinach, cook for 3 minutes until the spinach wilts. Deglaze the pan with Pernod. Season with salt and pepper, add a dash of red pepper sauce. Allow the mixture to cook down for a few minutes. Finish off the bread crumbs by mixing in olive oil, Parmesan and chervil, season with salt and pepper.* Spoon 1 heaping teaspoon of the spinach mixture on each oyster followed by a spoonful of the bread crumb mixture. Sprinkle a baking pan amply with rock salt. Arrange the oysters in the salt to steady them. Bake in a preheated 450 degree F oven for 10 to 15 minutes until golden. Serve with lemon wedges and red pepper sauce.
Make Ahead Note*:
You can place both mixes in separate baggies and place in the refrigerator until ready to bake. Go to the fishmonger that day, get him to shuck some oysters for you (talk him into giving you some crushed ice or rock salt) distribute the two mixes on top and bake. Now, how easy can that be?
Recipe Source: Tyler Florence
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