Oysters with Rice Wine Vinaigrette

During my recent trip back home, my Aunt decided to throw a quick dinner party together, and I was told that I'll be responsible for the Oysters.

I thought... Great. I can do Oysters. Au Naturale ... Kilpatrick .... Sorted :)

And then I found out she ordered 10 Dozen Oysters. TEN Dozen...! that's 120 Oysters!!!

My mother's oven would only be able to do 2 dozen Kilpatrick oysters at a time.

So I quickly googled around for something that would be quick and easy to put together (since I still had to whip up the Kilpatricks - my mother's favourites). This one that I came across from Not Quite Nigella stood out from the rest. It looked simple, fresh and very easy to put together.

After tasting the Vinaigrette however, I did kind of twitch the recipe a bit. I added a bit more ginger, light soy and reduced the amount of oil. So you may want to do the same and taste as you go and add or subtract as required. Basically, you want a vinaigrette that doesn't overpower the oysters, but still want to taste the vinaigrette and not just oil.

Oysters with Rice Wine Vinaigrette
As seen in Not Quite Nigella - Tetsuya's Oysters

Ingredients:

• 12 Large Oysters Shucked (I had Coffin Bays - but any large creamy tasting oyster will do)

Vinaigrette:

• 2 teaspoon ginger (finely grated)
• 4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (Japanese brand preferred)
• 1 teaspoon castor sugar
• 2 teaspoons light soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons grape seed oil
• 2 tablespoons light olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Garnish:

• 4 stalks of Chives (finely chopped)
• 3 tablespoons Salmon Roe

Optional:

• Rock Salt for Oysters to rest on

Method:

1. If using, place rock salt on a serving plate and arrange oysters to top
2. To make the Vinaigrette, whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl, taste and adjust the amount of sweetness (sugar), saltiness (light soy) or tang (lemon juice) as required
3. Spoon about a tablespoon of Vinaigrette into each oyster
4. For each oyster, sprinkle a pinch of chive and divide the Salmon Roe between the oysters evenly.

Notes:

• I left the skin on the ginger, and used a lemon zester to grate the inside flesh of the ginger
• The Vinaigrette recipe from NQN was for 12 Oysters, but I found I had more than enough for about 4 dozen oysters.
  
  

Ricotta Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

I'm a sucker for Zucchini flowers.. If they are on the menu, I would order them. No questions asked. Making them however, is a totally different story. Its always been a bit of a mess. The batter goes everywhere. Ricotta stuffing drips out. Or the batter would either be too thick or too thin... blah ~!

I think though.. I may have finely got it right this time. The difference is draining the ricotta cheese beforehand. By doing this, the cheese has more form and makes it easier when transferring from the batter mix into the deep fryer. Also, coating the stuffed zucchini flowers in a thin layer of cornflour before dipping it into the batter mix, helped to keep the batter coating on. The batter mixture itself had to pass the chopstick test. By that I mean, dipping the ends of a chopstick into the mixture, and when you pull out the chopstick, there should be a coating of batter around the ends that doesn't all drip off.

Ricotta Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

• 6 zucchini flowers
• 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese (drained)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1 clove of garlic (minced)
• 5 fresh sweet basil leaves (finely chopped)
• 1 Anchovy fillet (minced)
• Couple of grinds of fresh Pepper
• 1 small chilli (finely chopped) - Optional

For the Batter & Frying

• Enough vegetable or canola oil for deep frying
• Enough Cornflour for coating the stuffed flowers
• 2/3 cup all-purposed flour
• Teaspoon of Bi-Carbonate of Soda
• 1/2 cup of icy cold water

For serving

• Sprinkle of sea salt flakes
• Lemon Wedges

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix together the drained ricotta, egg, garlic, basil, cheese, anchovy fillet and fresh pepper. Once the mixure is combined, using a sandwich bag, spoon the ricotta mixture into the bag and set this aside.
2. Clean each flower by patting it with a damp cloth. Gently spread open the petals of each flower and carefully pinch out the filaments inside.
3. Using a pair of sissors, snip off one of the corners of the sandwich bag so that it turns into a pipping bag.
4. With one hand holding the flower and opening flower petal, and the other with the pipping bag, fill up the zucchini flower with the ricotta mixture. You should be able to use the ends of the petal and give it a slight twist to keep the ricotta mixture in place. Lay these down onto a flat tray or plate. Repeat until all the zucchini flowers have been stuffed with the ricotta mixture.
5. Sprinkle a thin layer of corn flour over the zucchini flowers. Turn each flower and make sure they are evenly covered.
6. Heat about 1 1/2 inches of oil in a deep saucepan over medium-high heat until its hot enough to start frying.
7. Mix together the remaining ingredients for the batter mix. Add more water if the batter is too thick. Or more flour if it is too thin.
8. Once the oil is ready, taking one flower at a time... dip the flower into the batter, turning to coat completely. Lift out and let the excess drip off. Gently slip the battered flowers into the hot oil and fry until golden brown on all sides. This should take about 4 minutes. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the blossoms to paper towels to drain off any excess oil.
9. Season with some sea salt flakes and serve immediately with some wedges of lemon.
   

Tips:

• You can test this with a piece a small piece of bread. Or simply dip in the ends of a chopstick, and if it starts to bubble around the chopstick, then the oil is ready. It should not be smoking hot. If it is, the food will burn too quickly, turn the heat off to cool the oil until its no longer smoking.
  
  

Steamed Oysters with Fresh Garlic

Lately, I've been craving for steamed scallops..like the ones they serve in Cantonese restaurants. For today it was enough for me to head to the fishmongers straight after work to try and pickup some scallops. Unfortunately they didn't have any. The only scallops they had were already shelled and look somewhat greyish. I decided to give those a pass. I really needed them to be ...

a) fresh, and
b) still attached to one of the shells
c) definitely not have a dull greyish tint !!!

The reason for the shell, is that I wanted to use the shell as a plate to cradle the garlic sauce and glass noodles.

I still really wanted to test out my fresh garlic sauce, so I opted for some pacific oysters instead. Although with the size of the oyster shells (and the pacific ones were the largest available already), I couldn't use the glass noodles. I guess I will just have to save them for next time... :)

Steamed Oysters with Fresh Garlic
As found in many good chinese restaurants, however this recipe is my own

• 1 dozen fresh oysters
• coriander (leaves only - 1 per oyster)
• spring onion (thinly sliced diagonally)
  

Fresh Garlic Sauce:

• 6 large cloves garlic (chopped finely - roughly about 1 per two oysters)
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons of white sugar
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and more for later

Mince\chop garlic finely, place into a bowl add soy sauce then mix in the white sugar. Heat up the oil in a clean saucepan. When the oil is really hot, pour the oil over the garlic mixture. This process should cook the garlic instantly. Try to have the saucepan facing away from you when doing this.

Bring some water in a wok to boil with a steaming rack. This will be used as the steamer.

Prepare the oysters on a plate. Spoon about a tablespoon of garlic mixture on top of each oyster. Try to leave the oil behind and scoop out the garlic and soy sauce mix only.

Once the water starts to boil, place the plate of oysters into the wok. Steam for about 4 minutes on medium-high heat.

Place a leaf of coriander on each oyster then top with spring onions. Heat some more oil in the saucepan used before. When the oil is really hot, pour the oil over the oysters. This should sizzle and cook the coriander leaf and spring onions.

Serve immediately

Even though I had to substitute with Oysters, it did turn out quite well and was very yummy. I must try and source out some scallops with shells and try this again with glass noodles.. :)

Oysters Kilpatrick & Mornay

These are definitely one of my favorites to cook up when I have Oysters available, and have already gobbled down too many raw ones.

For Oysters Kilpatrick:

• 4 Pieces of Bacon (sliced and chopped up finely)
• 1 Tbl sp of Butter
• 6 Tbl sp of Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 Tbl sp of HP Sauce
• 1 Tbl sp of Tabasco Sauce
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Melt butter in saucepan, add in Worcestershire, HP & Tabasco sauce. Once sauces are combined add salt & pepper to taste. Sprinkle bacon over oyster and spoon sauce over the bacon. Place under hot grill, and leave until bacon starts going crisp. Usually about 3-4 minutes.

For Oysters Mornay:

• 1 Cup of Milk
• 2 Tbl sp of Butter
• 2 Tbl sp of plain flour
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1 tsp French Mustard
• 1/2 Cup of grated tasty cheese
• Cayenne Pepper

Make a roux by melting butter in a saucepan then slowly adding flour, then milk until a white sauce forms. Add mustard then cheese, salt & pepper to taste. Add cheese sauce to oysters, sprinkle with Cayenne pepper and extra cheese. Place under hot grill for about 3-4 min, until cheese topping starts to brown slighly.