Passport & Plate - Oysters a la Nancy
USA | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 5 photos
4 dozen medium to large oysters, cleaned and shucked,
2 medium bunches of fresh spinach, cleaned,
1 stick of salted butter,
1 medium yellow onion, chopped medium fine,
1 clove of garlic finely chopped,
1 ¼ can anchovies, mashed,
1 ¼ cup dry white wine, preferably Sauvigon Blanc from New Zealand,
½ cup grated bread crumbs from 3-day-old French style baguette,
1/2 teaspoon salt to taste,
1/2 teaspoon pepper to taste,
Several thinly sliced lemon wedges,
2 cups dry white wine, one for chef and one for assistant while cooking (optional)
Serves: 8-12 for a Dinner Party, 4-6 oysters each
How to prepare this recipe:
(Note: This recipe is not difficult, but it does require attention to detail.)
Part I:
* Take fresh, cleaned spinach, over a large sauce pan, place spinach in a steamer insert over boiling water. Bring heat to a simmer and let steam for several minutes.
* When limp, place in a colander and drain. Then place on a clean, cloth towel.
* Thoroughly wring out moisture. Set aside.
Part II:
* Melt butter over medium heat.
* Mince clove of garlic very fine. Add to bubbling butter and sautee.
* Chop onion and add.
* KEY: Sautee until onion is translucent
* Mix in 1/2 teaspoon of salt & of pepper
Part III:
* In a large bowl, combine spinach with butter, onions, garlic, salt, and pepper, from stove.
* Finely mince the secret ingredient: anchovies! Add to the bowl along with the oil from the can, stirring–not mixing in a blender, along the way.
* Add dry white wine, mixing in thoroughly.
* Grate bread until you have a half-cup. Mix in thoroughly.
* Set aside
Preheat oven to broil, set on high
Part IV: (**Don’t drink any wine until you complete this step!**)
* Scrub the outside of the oysters with a brush.
* Carefully shuck the oysters without sending yourself to the hospital.
* Once shucked maintain the juice from the oysters. This is important and tricky at the same time because the oysters like to lean over and let the juice run out. Don’t let this happen by propping up any tilting oysters on other more stable oysters, keeping them level and thus maintaining juice.
* Set oysters in a large baking dish.
* Spoon spinach mix on top of each oyster, just enough to cover the oyster’s flesh, not the oyster shell. This will maintain a ratio of oyster to mix as 1 to 1.
* Optional: sprinkle bread crumbs on top of each oyster
* When dish is full, put under the broiler for 7 minutes.
* Sip on wine. (Optional)
Part V:
* Juice from oysters should be bubbling up through the spinach mix.
* Take out and plate with thin lemon slices as a garnish.
* Serve immediately. Don’t let sit.
The story behind this recipe.
Growing up, my mother would throw dinner parties to gather friends and family to connect, share and enjoy: each other, our time together and the food she made for us to experience in common.
Her specialty for these gatherings came to be known as Oysters a la Nancy. When asked if one would attend her dinner party, they responded, “Are you making your special oysters?” She always did. Not because people requested them, but because her oysters were what joined us. Her oysters bridged the gap between generations and personalities and gave us our commonality: our love of food, and our common joy in experiencing her oysters.
True to her personality, she remained coy at each party.“Nancy, what is in these oysters? They’re incredible!”
“I’ll never tell,” she would say, drifting back to the kitchen for more.
Fast forward past my years of throwing casual dinner parties when I lived/worked in Paris, Venice, Prague and La Paz, bringing together an international group which often didn’t speak a common language, except the language of sharing special dishes and ingredients. Upon returning to Chicago, I began to throw public dinner parties through my media company as a way of connecting strangers over food in an often unconnected and disparate world.
At each dinner party, I invite 3 celebs and a chef who cooks for them and the live audience of 150. Streaming live on the internet, the conversations flow over food and drink on this unique media experience that, through the commonality of sharing food, unites a large group both in person and on-line.
Food is connection and when food is shared, there is family. I owe my interest in dinner parties to my mother and her oyster recipe that brought people flocking to our house to share and join with us as a family. At 75, she has finally shared the secret ingredient in her oyster recipe with me because she knows how important the Passport & Plate program is to me. We both believe that this is the foodie travel project I was born for.
