White truffle & egg custard with stingray oyster
The Amuse Bouche or "mouth amuser" as it literally translates is the first course of a tasting menu. It is a small 1 or 2 bite dish meant to awaken the senses and prepare the diner for the road ahead. I love to see things like oysters, eggs and caviar incorporated into an amuse because they pair so well with Champagnes and sparkling wines. And every long format meal like this should begin with bubbles (or a cocktail).
Let me be the first to point at that my egg-cutting skills need a little bit of work. Hopefully you can overlook this minor detail. And if you can't, go try and cut an egg open cleanly before you talk trash, it isn't easy.
I served my amuse atop an oyster shell to make it clear that there was an oyster hiding somewhere within. The shell is made stable with a thick salt/water paste.
The eggs I used came from pastured chickens raised at Mountain View Poultry Farm. Pastured birds are free to roam about for much of the day foraging on insects, grasses and worms. Their diverse diet makes their meat and eggs taste amazing. Eggs from pastured birds tend to have a much brighter, vivid yellow color than conventional eggs. And the flavor is incredibly rich. Paying a dollar or so less for crappy eggs just doesn't make any sense to me.
The custard is made by whipping egg yolks with white truffle oil, cream, milk, sherry vinegar and the liquor from the oysters in a sauce pan over low heat. Once it thickens up to the desired consistency, the texture of pudding in this case, it is seasoned with salt.
A raw oyster is placed inside the empty, and perfectly cut, egg shell. I used "Stingray" oysters from Virginia for this dish. I had never had them before. They are one of the more mild east coast oysters I have had with only a slight briny quality to them.
The warm custard is then spooned into the shell, gently poaching the oyster inside. A few drops of truffle oil and a sprig of greens top it off. I'm not sure exactly what these baby greens were, I never asked at the market. But they had a very faint minty/anise flavor to them. Any small green or herb would work in it's place though.
Let me be the first to point at that my egg-cutting skills need a little bit of work. Hopefully you can overlook this minor detail. And if you can't, go try and cut an egg open cleanly before you talk trash, it isn't easy.
I served my amuse atop an oyster shell to make it clear that there was an oyster hiding somewhere within. The shell is made stable with a thick salt/water paste.
The eggs I used came from pastured chickens raised at Mountain View Poultry Farm. Pastured birds are free to roam about for much of the day foraging on insects, grasses and worms. Their diverse diet makes their meat and eggs taste amazing. Eggs from pastured birds tend to have a much brighter, vivid yellow color than conventional eggs. And the flavor is incredibly rich. Paying a dollar or so less for crappy eggs just doesn't make any sense to me.
The custard is made by whipping egg yolks with white truffle oil, cream, milk, sherry vinegar and the liquor from the oysters in a sauce pan over low heat. Once it thickens up to the desired consistency, the texture of pudding in this case, it is seasoned with salt.
A raw oyster is placed inside the empty, and perfectly cut, egg shell. I used "Stingray" oysters from Virginia for this dish. I had never had them before. They are one of the more mild east coast oysters I have had with only a slight briny quality to them.
The warm custard is then spooned into the shell, gently poaching the oyster inside. A few drops of truffle oil and a sprig of greens top it off. I'm not sure exactly what these baby greens were, I never asked at the market. But they had a very faint minty/anise flavor to them. Any small green or herb would work in it's place though.