Pickled Beet Mignonette With Seaweed-Infused Oil
This bright hors d'oeuvre adds a luxurious crunch a pop of rouge to your oyster appetizer game. The bite combines the familiar tart taste of a mignonette with an added umami bomb with a drizzle of seaweed oil.
When looking for new food items to pair with my raw oysters, I have three key criteria for my accompanying ingredients: (1) their flavor profile must compliment (not mask) that of the oyster, (2) they ideally add a textural component that inspires oyster lovers to chew the oyster, and (3) they add a pop of color!
I whipped together this mignonette in honor of the Valentine holiday. Who doesn’t like a little pop of rouge for their holiday aphrodisiac?
Pickled beets are a great pairing with a dozen raw bivalves. Not only do the pickled beets provide an acidity akin to a traditional mignonette, but roasting the beets before pickling them, and pairing the mixture with a seaweed-infused oil adds a savory umami factor that gives the hors d’oeuvres some added complexity
Enjoy these colorful bites on a drab winter day, or add them to your summer hors d’oeuvres list to excite your party guests!
Pickled Beet Mignonette With Seaweed-Infused Oil
Ingredients
Instructions
- Roast the beets. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Wash the beets well, removing any soil residue. Do not cut the beets; rather, wrap them loosely in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet. Roast them for 40 minutes, or until tender.
- Prepare the pickling liquids. In a medium saucepan over high heat, bring the vinegar, water, garlic, salt, and sugar to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium, and simmer an additional 20 minutes.
- Turn off the heat, and pour the mixture over your bowl of beets.
- Let the beets sit in the pickling liquid for approximately 1 hour at room temperature.
- Refrigerate. Then, cover the beets with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until well-chilled, at least 6 hours, but preferably, overnight.
- Transfer 2-3 tablespoons of the beet pickling liquid to a medium bowl, and stir in the sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar).
- Drain the chilled beets, and toss them with the reserved sherry mixture. Add the tarragon, and a few grinds of black pepper.
- Prep the oil. Place 1 cup of cooking oil in a small saucepan over low heat (if your burner has number designations, you should not yet above a "2"). The oil should warm, but you should not see steam rise, nor should you hear the oil sizzle.
- Infuse the seaweed. Place 0.5 oz of the dried seaweed and the chopped garlic into the oil.
- Rehydrate. Allow the dried seaweed to partially rehydrate slowly in the warm oil. This will take roughly 1 hour.
- Remove the saucepan from the burner and allow the oil to cool completely.
- Place the oil, with the seaweed in a container or glass bottle. You can store this with your other cooking oils, or place in the refrigerator.
- This oil will last you about 3 months from the date of infusion.
- Shuck your oysters. Place a teaspoon of the beet mignonette on each oyster, making sure you get some beet pieces on each oyster.
- Drizzle a dash of seaweed oil onto each oyster.
- Place a sprig of dill on each oyster for garnish.
