Author Notes
Hello, hello, hello.Why mess up a good thing? You have got these great cold water oysters. Cocktail sauce is stupid and contagious. The oyster should, once you have opened it, be singing opera. Something like, The Pearl Fishers by Mascagnet. You get it? Clean and cold. Hold them on ice while you make this mignonette. We happen to like Kumamotos or Quilicene for this. Olympia oysters are really good but they can be tiny. Not that I would push away a plate of Belons. These oysters spend their brief lives in icy cold water and they are delicious. Here we are now, entertain us. —pierino
Ingredients
-
24
super fresh oysters
-
1 cup
super good white wine vinegar
-
2
shallots chopped
-
1 tablespoon
grated horseradish (or use prepared)
-
1 tablespoon
fresh tarragon roughly chopped
-
Ground black pepper
Directions
-
Shuck the oysters without wounding yourself.
-
Arrange them over individual plates over either chipped ice or coarse salt.
-
Quickly, using just a fork and remaining ingredients mix your mignonette. It is best to present this in very small bowls to accompany each plate.*
-
*Note to cook: some guests might not be ready for the horseradish pop. I was serving this to friends awhile back. One of my friends was consuming the second oyster he had ever eaten in his life---the first was consumed five minutes before---his eyes lit up and he started blowing snot, not exactly good tableside behavior. So perhaps advise that horseradish is hot.
Standup commis flâneur, and food historian. Pierino's background is in Italian and Spanish cooking but of late he's focused on frozen desserts. He is now finishing his cookbook, MALAVIDA! Can it get worse? Yes, it can. Visit the Malavida Brass Knuckle cooking page at Facebook and your posts are welcome there.
See what other Food52ers are saying.