Quick Pickled Oysters à la Thomas Keller
This delicious recipe complements the oysters' natural brine while adding in the refreshing crunch of pickled cucumber, and the smokiness of a few salmon roe pearls.
In my family, food takes center stage during the holiday season. I was lucky to be raised by an Italian mother who is obsessed with cooking, and literally goes into holiday overdrive mode to craft festive and elegant dishes for holiday meals. My mom’s love of entertaining via food was definitely passed down to her two daughters.
Much to my mother’s delight, my sister married a man whose love of cooking rivals that of my mother’s. Every time I visit my sister, her and her husband have acquired a new kitchen gadget (e.g. this year’s Ooni Koda pizza oven) or have perfected a cooking technique that needs to be showcased. I’m fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sit with a glass of wine, and taste-test their creations.
This year, I showed up to my native Michigan with, amongst other things, a bag of 100 oysters. I intended a good majority of these to be slurped in their purest state with, perhaps, only a squeeze of lemon for a hint of citrus. However, I knew my brother-in-law would want to experiment with some of the briny bivalves. Within seconds of me setting the oysters on his countertop, he proclaimed:
“we’re pickling some of the oysters à la Thomas Keller”
Side Note on my brother-in-law he idolizes Thomas Keller. On Christmas Eve, I watched in awe as my brother-in-law prepared a feast from scratch from The French Laundry Cookbook & Bouchon. From handmade chestnut mousse agnolotti to a Provençal-style braised artichoke, the preparation of our Christmas Eve Feast was a culinary marathon that was impeccable. It was a three star Michelin meal for the price of nothing.
While I was hesitant about my precious Maine oysters taking a bath in some pickling liquid, I put my faith in my brother-in-law to treat the bivalves with respect.
This pickled oyster recipe is exceptionally easy to execute, and a delicious showcase of the Maine oyster. The oysters are steeped in a traditional pickling liquid (vinegar, water, sugar, spices) for 8-36 hours. We went on the shorter end of the pickling time spectrum, as we didn’t want to totally lose the oysters flavor. I was delighted to discover that the oyster’s brine still resonated, and actually complemented, the pickling taste. We added in a refreshing crunch of some pickled cucumber, and delicious smokiness of a few salmon roe pearls.
Quick Pickled Oysters à la Thomas Keller
Ingredients
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from the heat, cover, and allow to steep for 30 minutes. This is enough liquid to pickle up to 2 dozen oysters.
- Shuck the oysters. Add the oyster meat to the pickling liquid, and refrigerate in a covered container for at least 12 - 36 hours.
- Wash the bottom shell of the oyster, scrape out any residual meat, and reserve for plating.
- Cut the cucumbers. Using a mandolin, cut 1/6-inch lengthwise slices from one side of the cucumber until you reach the seeds. Turn the cucumber and continue to cut slices from all four sides of the cucumber.
- Julienne. Stack the cucumber slices and cut them lengthwise into 1/16-inch julienne strips to resemble capellini pasta. You will want 1 cup of cucumber strands for this recipe.
- Mix it up. Combine the cucumber strands with the kosher salt and rice wine vinegar in a bowl and allow them to marinate for about 30 minutes to extract excess liquid.
- Drain the cucumber strands and squeeze it to remove excess liquid.
- Place in a bowl and toss with the chopped dill.
- Place a bed of the seaweed or rock salt mix on serving plates. Twirl the cucumber with a fork, as you would pasta, and place a mound in each oyster shell.
- Remove the oysters from the pickling liquid and place an oyster on each mound of cucumber.
- Garnish each oyster with about 1 teaspoon of caviar and a sprig of dill.
