Huîtres Chaudes au Curry, étuvée de Choux (Baked Oysters with Curried Cabbage)

Huîtres Chaudes au Curry, étuvée de Choux (Baked Oysters with Curried Cabbage) is a modern French recipe for a classic starter of poached oysters served in baked cream on a bed of curried Chinese leaf. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Malaysian version of: Baked Oysters with Curried Cabbage (Huîtres Chaudes au Curry, étuvée de Choux).

prep time

30 minutes

cook time

10 minutes

Total Time:

40 minutes

Makes:

300g

Rating:

Tags : Curry Spice Recipes Baking Recipes French Recipes

This is a warm oyster dish, where the oysters are served with a cream sauce on a bed of curried cabbage. This is typically served for Christmas in France, but it works just as well for New Year's Eve with drinks or as a starter for Valentine's day.

Ingredients:

24 oysters
1 Chinese cabbage (chinese leaf/napa cabbage)
30g of lightly-salted butter
1 tbsp curry powder (any mild curry powder, but I would recommend Breton Kari)
500g of coarse sea salt
sal and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
200ml of double cream (30% fat)
1 egg yolk

Method:

Wash and shred the Chinese cabbage leaves. Place a pan over medium heat, add the butter and use to sweat the shredded leaves for 10 minutes, sprinkle over the curry powder, take off the heat then set aside.

Shuck the oysters, recovering as much of their liquor as possible. Strain this through a fine-meshed sieve and set aside. Wash the inside of the top shells (discard the flat bottom shells).

Pour the oyster water into a pan, bring to a boil and use to poach the osters for 30 seconds. Take off the heat and return the oyster meats to their shells.

Add the cream to a mixing bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Beat in the egg yolk and season with salt and black pepper.

Pre-heat your oven to 200C (400F/Gas Mark 7). Arrange a bed of coarse salt in an oven-proof dish. Sit the oyster shells in this and divide the curried cabbage between them. Top with a tbsp of the whipped cream. Transfer to the centre of your pre-heated oven and cook for a few minutes, until the cream mixture is beginning to brown.

Remove from the oven, transfer the shells to a serving dish covered with coarse salt. Serve hot.