FOR SAVOURY OCCASIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 July 1939, Page 8

FOR SAVOURY OCCASIONS

OYSTERS FIRST FAVOURITES.

SOME TASTY DISHES. For all savoury occasions oysters are first favourites—especially with the men of the family! And they aie such accommodating luxuries for they are just as nice hot as cold.

Oysters Natural Allow four or six oysters for each person, and serve each in the deep shell. Garnish them with lemon and serve on a plate with chipped ice. Thin brown bread and butter should be. served with the oysters.

Oyster Cocktail (I.) For each person take six small oysters. With their liquor drop them into a wine or cocktail glass, then add three drops of Tabasco sauce, a dessertspoonful of tomato catsup, and a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce. Stir all together and serve. Oyster Cocktail (II.) Take 1 dozen oysters, a little jelly from roast veal or chicken, 1 small tin grapefruit, A teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce.

Remove the beards from the oysters. If possible, keep the jelly and grapefruit on ice till it is time to make and serve the cocktails. Put two or three oysters into cocktail glasses or small wineglasses. Add a teaspoonful of jelly free from all fat, and about a dessertspoonful of grapefruit pulp. Serve in the glasses.

Oyster Fritters Take 12 large oysters, 3oz flour, pint tepid water, 1 tablespoonful salad oil or oiled butter, 2 egg-whites, salt, frying fat. Make a batter by stirring the water and salad oil gradually into the flour; when perfectly smooth add the salt and lastly the stiffly-whipped whites of eggs. Beard the oysters, dip them in the batter, and fry them in hot fat until they acquire a golden brown colour. Serve immediately. Jellied Oysters

Take 8 oysters, 1 gill fish stock (or water left after boiling fish), 1 tablespoonful lemon juice, A tablespoonful vinegar, 1 bay-leaf, A teaspoonful meat extract. 2 strips thinly-cut lemon peel, cayenne, salt, Aoz gelatine. The fish stock which makes the jelly must be nicely flavoured. Put it in a double saucepan with the lemon rind, bay-leaf, and the beards of the oysters and cook for twenty minutes. Add the vinegar, lemon juice, meat extract, and salt to taste, and strain into a basin. When cold add the gelatine to the stock. Leave for five minutes and dissolve slowly over a low gas, stirring all the time. Strain it into a basin and leave it to get cold. Add any liquor that has come from the oysters. Clean four deep oyster shells and put a little jelly in each, also two oysters seasoned with cayenne. Let the jelly set and pile more jelly on top. Garnish with quarters of lemon, as these are easier to squeeze than slices. Allow two oyster shells (four oysters) to each person. Oysters and Mushrooms. Take 8 oysters, Jib small mushrooms, loz butter, 1A gills milk, loz flour, juice A lemon, A gill water, cayenne, salt, 2oz dripping, 4 squares bread.

Peel the mushrooms, wash them, and remove the stalks. Place them in a pie-dish (cup side up), with the milk and water, a seasoning of salt, and very little cayenne, and put the butter in small pieces on top. Cover the pie-dish with greased paper and bake the mushrooms in a hot oven for about twenty minutes or until tender. While they are cooking fry the bread in a frying-pan in smoking hot fat till it is golden brown. Turn it over when half done. It should take about two minutes to fry. Lift it out of the fat and keep hot till required. Remove the beards from the oysters. Put the flour in a cup and mix smoothly with the lemon juice. Place the mushrooms on the fried bread and put them in the oven while making the sauce. Pour the liquor from the pie-dish into the cup of flour and the lemon juice and then add the oyster liquor. If it is less than half a pint, add a little water. Put into a saucepan, stir till it boils, and boil for three minutes. Cut the oysters into quarters and put them in the sauce. Pour the oyster sauce over the toast and lay the mushrooms on top. Garnish with lemon and serve at once.

Oysters Benedict Take 1 pint-oysters (drained). 6 thin slices boiled ham, 1 square inch ham fat, muffins, Hollandaise sauce, 6 thin strips pimento. Saute the ham in fat three or four minutes, or until hot and lightly browned. Remove from pan, add oysters, and saute five minutes or until plump and edges curl. Split and toast muffins; place one slice of ham and four oysters on each half. Serve with Hollandaise sauce and garnish with pimento.

Savoury Oysters Take 1 dozen oysters, 2oz flour, 2 eggs, loz butter. 1 pint milk, cayenne, juice 1 lemon. Carefully beard the oysters and scald them in their own liquor, then put the flour, butter, lemon juice, and cayenne in a saucepan, add the oysters and milk, and stir till boiling, then put in the well-beaten eggs. Butter some small moulds; fill them and steam gently for twenty minutes. HOLLANDAISE SAUCE Take cupful butter. 11 tablespoonfuls lemon juice, 3 well-beaten eggyolks, salt and cayenne to taste. Divide butter into three pieces; put one piece in top of a small double boiler, add lemon juice and well-beat-en egg-yolks. Place over hot water loot boiling) and cook slowly, beating constantly with a wire whisk. When butler is melted, add second piece of butter and, as mixture thickens, add the third piece and cook until thickened, stirring all the time. Remove immediately from water, add salt and cayenne, and serve at once. Angels on Horseback Take 6 small slices of bacon, 6 oysters. slices of bread, squeeze of lemon juice, pepper, chopped parsley, fat for frying.

Cut six small oval-shaped pieces of bread about three-eighths of an inch thick and fry them in hot fat until golden brown, then drain them and keep warm. Remove the beards from the oysters. Cut the rind from the bacon, the latter should be very thinly sliced. Place an oyster on each piece of bacon. Sprinkle with a little pepper, lemon juice, and chopped parsley. Roll up the bacon with the oyster inside it. Fry very gently until the bacon is cooked and the oyster hot. Stand, a roll on each piece of fried bread and serve on a hot dish garnished with parsley (use rather fat bacon).