Bluff Oysters, The Ultimate

It is May and that is the season for Bluff Oysters.
These oysters, if not the best in the world….are in the top three.
As in the rest of world, they are now amongst the most expensive foods
When I was small, my father would buy them in 5 dozen lots from the Oyster Man
Every Friday he would come home with them, we ate them au naturale, fried, oyster soup etc.
By the end of the season you would be getting sick of them

Now we buy them by the dozen and savour them.
You can of course buy much cheaper oysters, Pacific, Rock Oysters (cooking only)
Bluff are the crème de la crème.
Normally I serve them with thinly sliced Vogels bread (another wonder of the world) with freshly ground black pepper, a touch of Tabasco perhaps.
Definitely a little squeeze of lemon juice. Sometimes balsamic. Pretty plain really.
But this time I decided you try out these Potato Blinis that Richard Corrigan (Michelin Star Chef) cooked for the Queen’s 80th birthday.
If they are good enough for the Queen!!!

INGREDIENTS

85g Plain Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
Pinch of Freshly Grated Nutmeg
1 Free-Range Egg
1 Free-Range Egg Yolk
150ml Milk
115g Cooked Mashed Potatoes
knob Butter
25g St Killian Cream Cheese (Or Other Similar Soft Cream Cheese
Method
Put the flour in a bowl with the salt and the nutmeg and stir in the egg and egg yolk.
Whisk in the milk, then fold in the cooked warm potato and the cheese.
Cover and leave to rest in the fridge until ready to cook. To cook the blinis, heat the butter in a non-stick frying pan.

Add spoonfuls of the blini batter and fry for 1-2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.
This will make eight blinis so they said in the recipe.
Well I made tiny blinis and this mixture made 24

The actual reason I was making these blinis was a trial for a dinner we are having next week.
I shall be serving them with hot smoked salmon and a dill and horseradish mayo I think
But enough of the future meal…here are the oysters in full bloom
Divine and Delicious.
To complete our dinner I roasted this beautiful piece of Hapuka/ Grouper
According to my fishmonger it was a female fish, it was so beautiful and white.
So season and oil both sides of the filet and pop it into a very hot pan
Cook till golden brown just a minute or two, flip it

Add the juice from the oysters
Bring the juices to the boil and place the whole pan in the oven for about 6 minutes
Remove the fish and set it aside to rest
Reduce the juices and add a knob of butter to emulsify the sauce plus a handful of parsley finely chopped A beautiful dinner
Served with a simple crisp salad
Iceberg lettuce
Radish,
Cherry tomatoes,
Blue Castello cheese,
Parsley and a
Simple vinaigrette

A Footnote

Up till Saturday night we had a red letter box
Good sturdy box. Practical.

Obviously someone else lusted after it.
When I went outside to farewell the family on Mothers day
Suddenly something is missing!
Some little w***er had carefully unscrewed it during the night and took it away.
We are now the proud owner of a green letterbox.

Anali of Anali's First Amendment one of my first blogging friends has been tagged with a book meme
I like this idea I think I will email a few friends for their thoughts.

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences

Lorraine my provider of Pear Cognac, has lent me a sensational book called “Shantaram”
And if you haven’t read it, yet you must.
So to complete the meme.
Here are my 3 sentences.

They sat on the ground around my low bed, Prabaker and his parents and his neighbours, keeping me company in the warm dark cinnamon-scented night, and forming a ring of protection around me. I thought that it would be impossible to sleep within a circle of spectators, but in minutes I began to float and drift on the murmuring tide of their voices; soft and rhythmic waves that swirled beneath a fathomless night of bright, whispering stars. At one point Prabaker’s father reached out from his place at my left side to rest his hand on my shoulder.
As I write I am listening to Robert Plant and AlisonKrauss Lovely.