Oyster tartar in an oyster water aspic on a bed of blanched scallion, bottarga chips and squid ink tile
I have been loving oysters since, as a
child I spent my summer vacations in Arcachon (South of Bordeaux) first, then
in the Oléron island (North of Bordeaux), the most famous spots for oyster
farming in France. In France, my only way to eat oysters was raw, with just a
few drops of lemon, bread and butter, and a glass of Muscadet or
Entre-deux-Mers... if not directly on the rocks for those wild oysters I used
to forage at low tide (this is now rightly forbidden to avoid the destruction
of those foreshore areas). With this background, I was disappointed by the
American oysters that I found less tasty, less iodine-flavored and less salty,
as if they are abundantly rinsed in fresh water (that might be the case). So,
something unimaginable for me till then, I started to “cook” oysters, such as those oysters gratinéed with sabayon of Loire crémant rosé ot those oysters in their water aspic with watercress. Well, not
really and not always to cook them, like this tartar here, but at least to
prepare them in a more sophisticated way. That said, don’t misunderstand me, I
am absolutely not ready for the Rockefeller oysters… Oysters do not deserve
this!
For this original and delicious recipe, I
borrowed ideas from different recipes:
Levels of difficulty
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Cost
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Preparation
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Resting
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Cooking
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n
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$$$
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60
minutes
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10 minutes
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Ingredients 2
servings
§ 12 oysters (here Atlantic Wellfleet)
§ 1 bunch of fresh scallions, thinly chopped
including at least 50% of the green parts
§ 30 g of coarse sea salt
§ ¼ cup of AP flour
§ ¼ cup of neutral oil
(grape, canola…)
§ 1/8 cup of squid ink
§ ¼ cup of dry white
wine
§ ½ lemon juice
§ 2 pinches of agar
agar
§ ½ sheet of gold
gelatin, previously soaked for 5 minutes in cold water
§ 15/20 g of bottarga,
cut in small chips
§ 1 lime (only for its
rind)
§ Pepper or piment d’Espelette
§
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Instructions
1.
First thing to do is to recuperate the
oyster water. To optimize the quantity of water (it will be used for the oyster
tartar and for the squid ink tile) obtained from a dozen of oysters (for 2
servings), make sure to shuck the oysters above a dish, without a towel, in
order not to lose any single drop of this iodine-flavored elixir during the
opening phase. Recuperate the water inside the oysters and rinse them in
salted water (30g of coarse sea salt to replicate the natural sea water
salinity), and let the oysters rest half an hour during which they
regenerated water. Strain the water to eliminate some possible pieces of
shell and let the water rest 5 minutes so that the traces of dirt, sand or
mud fall on the bottom. Thus, you may be able to recuperate around 5/8 cup of
precious oyster water.
2.
To make the squid ink tiles, mix the
flour, the oil, around 50% of your oyster water and the squid ink together,
to obtain a liquid with a texture similar to that of a crêpe batter. Cook the
tile exactly like you would do with small crêpes, spreading a little quantity
of batter in a slightly oiled and medium hot crepe skillet. It's just a bit
longer than normal crepes, the time for the water to evaporate and for the
tiles to cure. Remove delicately the cured tile with a spatula and reserve
them on paper towels.
3.
Blanch the chopped scallions in boiling
water, cool them down in iced water, strain and pat them dry.
4.
Chop the oysters roughly, i.e. 2 or 3
pieces maximum per oyster (medium size), as you want to keep texture.
5.
Pour the remaining 50% of the oyster
water and the wine in a saucepan, add
the agar agar, mix the whole vigorously, and put to boiling. Let boil for 30
seconds, put out of the burner, and let cool down briefly before adding the
gelatin and mixing it. Let cool down. If the liquid starts to cure before you
are ready, you can always put it back briefly on the burner (but no boiling
as the gelatin would lose its capacities).
6.
Place the scallions in a ring, add the
chopped oysters, season with pepper or Espelette (don’t salt as the oyster,
the oyster water and the squid ink are salty), and pour slowly the curing
liquid to cement the wall. You can place a weight (plate…) on the ring to keep
the liquid inside the ring.
7.
Place the bottarga chips around the
tartar… or as you feel it, stud 1 or 2 big segments of tile in the tartar,
and spread some trims all around the plate
8.
To savor with a glass of Muscadet
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