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| Oysters! Oysters! Oysters! |
Oysters; well known for their aphrodisiac qualities though personally, apart from a slight indigestion when eaten in industrial quantities (as you might well imagine), have never seen any such effect either on me or others that I know of. Let me know if you have :-)
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| Oysters in Fish shop, Barcelona |
I LOVE oysters though there are many who scrunch their face in disgust at the idea of eating, what they imagine is, something slimy or a live being. In fact, if not alive, to be well avoided, like all bivalves, as stale seafood is particularly noxious. And slimy? NO WAY! The actual flesh is fresh and melts in your mouth, almost without having to bite or chew.
Did you know that the oysters of the American pacific coast are hermaphrodite? How cool is that? No need to flirt or make any effort to get a mate as their reproductive organs contain both the sperm and the eggs!
There is a saying, which is a great guide, about when to eat oysters - in the months with an 'R' in them - which, if you do your calculations, are the cold months. Now why is that, you may ask? Is it because there is less chance of them being stale? Maybe, but the reality is that oysters abstain from sex in the cold months and therefore their bodies are made up primarily of glycogen and salts which makes them fat and tasty, just as we like 'em! In the summer months, an insane 80% of their bodies become sex organs....and watery and tasteless. Now you know!
I know that the purist thing is to quaff an oyster without anything, maybe a drizzle of lemon juice (watch how the animal slides away from the acid) but I personally love it with a teaspoonful of this easy to make, 'mignonette' or sauce:
Serves 6
Ingredients:
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
90ml red wine vinegar
2 small eschalots, very finely chopped
Salt to taste
Method:
Combine everything in a bowl. Set aside for 15 minutes for the flavours to develop. Serve with your oysters
And with your favourite champagne or cava.....Bon Appetit!
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| Portobello bar, Madrid |
The idea of adding salt to oysters seems really strange to me....vinegar and eschalotte is not a problem...You havent mentoned the classic English way of eating them...in a beef and oyster pie....they used to serve this in a pub in the middle of Manchester called Sinclairs oyster bar...an amazing place, well worth a visit, if only to drink the Sam Smith's Dark Mild...less than 1.30 pounds a pint when I was last there...and ...a drink on a stick. Wonderful...unfortunately they don't do the beef and oyster pie anymore...Manchester is poorer for that. In fact the world is poorer for that.
ReplyDeleteSounds wonderful and so sad I missed out on that!
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