Pawaru-Grahmata

№ 104III. nodaļa

Prišus austerus vārīt

Boiled oysters with white sour sauce

  • Serves 4
  • 40 minutes
  • Melnraksts · vēl nav izmēģināts

1796Prischus austerus wahriht.

Modernizētslpp. 192 · PDF 206
4 porcijas

The book gives no quantities; the amounts below are ours.

Method

4 soļi
  1. Scrub the oysters under cold running water with a stiff brush. Throw away any with broken shells, and any that are open and don't close when tapped.
  2. Make the sauce first: melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook for 1–2 minutes without colouring. Whisk in the stock a little at a time and simmer for 5 minutes, until smooth and thick enough to coat a spoon. Add the lemon juice or vinegar, the pepper and salt to taste. Pour into a warm sauce bowl.
  3. Bring the water to a rolling boil in a large pan, add the salt, then the oysters, in two batches if your pan is small. Keep the water boiling. After 3–5 minutes the shells start to gape; lift each one out as it does and boil it for a further 1–2 minutes (see Notes for vulnerable eaters). Throw away any that haven't opened after 10 minutes.
  4. Pull off the top shell (an oyster knife or a blunt table knife slides in easily once they gape), loosen the oyster from the bottom shell and serve them in the bottom shells, with the sauce on the side.

Notes

What the book says vs. what we added

the book washes the oysters, scrubs the shells with a brush of birch twigs, puts them into salted water that has just come to the boil and boils them a little until the shells open, then serves them with a white sour sauce with a little pepper in a separate bowl. It describes a second method, too: oysters cooked in a covered pot with salt and some water, shaken now and then, in their own juice. The book warns that this way some stay raw and others turn hard. The sauce recipe and the timings are ours.

Buying oysters

buy them live from a good fishmonger and cook them within a day or two. Store them cup side down in the fridge (1–4 °C) under a damp cloth, never in water or an airtight box. The shells should be tightly closed and the oysters heavy with liquid.

Safety

oysters can carry norovirus and Vibrio bacteria, which thorough cooking kills. Food-safety agencies advise boiling oysters for 3–5 minutes after the shells open. That makes them firm, as the book warns, so many cooks stop sooner, but pregnant women, small children, the elderly and anyone with weak immunity should take the full time.

Size

the oysters of 1796 were the European flat oyster, a luxury shipped in from the North Sea. Pacific oysters, which are what fishmongers mostly sell today, are larger and take a little longer.

← → receptes · S skenējums · V vārdnīca · ⌘K meklēt

esc
↑↓ izvēlēties↵ atvērt