At this very moment I'm sitting at home feeling a little sorry for myself. My head is a walking, talking case of pus. I have sinusitis, a throat infection, the biggest coldsores you have ever seen, yes more than one coldsore! and swollen infected neck glands to boot. My head literally feels like a truck parked on top of it. I usually post results to restaurant recipes pretty quickly, I do like to keep my audience in suspense but I like to think I'm not cruel, but the acute elephantiasis that I've been experiencing in the right side of my face has kinda gotten in the way. I'm feeling a little better today, I can actually feel confident enough to venture outside without having small children run in fear from the sight of me, so I thought I would post this while the going is good.
Just a note to start with, the recipe called for St Helen oysters, I couldn't get my hands on any so instead went for Coffin bay oysters. I bought them already shucked, I know not the best, but I'm not confident enough to shuck my own oysters yet. I have visions of knives going through my hand and bright red blood spurting everywhere!
I'll start with the bad, I felt that the tempura batter was a little thick for the oysters. I'm used to very light crunchy batter and this was a fair bit thicker and more chewy. I didn't use a thermometer on my oil, so if I had it at the perfect temperature it may have resulted in a much fluffier and lighter texture.
I really enjoyed the oysters in the batter. It was a novelty for me. I've never had deep fried oysters before. I enjoy them au natural or lightly grilled with a nice sauce, so having the little ones encased in a skin made out of batter was totally new.
The oysters on the inside were perfectly cooked. Really juicy and smooth, not even a hint of rubberiness, frankly - a fear that I had. The ponzu sauce was interesting. It was tangy and went perfectly with the fishiness of the oysters. I didn't have any konbu, so I substituted with nori. It worked quite well.
I really liked this recipe, and I'll definitely make it again however I would use a different recipe for the tempura batter or at least get a proper thermometer to keep the oil at the right temperature.
12 comments:
Hope you get better soon!
very interesting recipe although the second last shot reminds me of alien for some reason :-) i love oysters! :-)
I hope you feel better!!!
And I love fried oysters (actually anything with oysters!)
Yikes you poor thing, I feel terrible for you! I'm uhh.. sure I've read somewhere that oysters are known to cure pus-head syndrome, yes, I'm sure of it! You'll be fine before you know it!
WOW - what a different way with Oysters. I may just have to try this out on hubby!
Hope you feel better soon!
Hey, I've heard that it sometimes helps to make sure the batter is ice cold to get tempura really crisp! Is that true?
Anyway, I got here because I was checking out your cupcake challenge! I LOVE cupcakes - have you tried the new QV 'Cupcake Family'? I'm dying to know how it tastes. I've only blogged about The Cupcake Bakery so far, you can check it out if you like - I really liked the carrot! =o) http://nevertrustaskinnyfoodie.blogspot.com/
You poor thing! Hope you feel better soon. The oysters look good, and it's nice that your ponzu substitution worked so well.
nice :) maybe try it with a lime aioli instead of the ponzu? and light beer/soda batter instead of tempura? Western twist ;)
Get well soon!
I hope you get better :( The oysters looks very nice!!
Oh no! Get well soon, it sucks being sick! Those oysters look so juicy inside in the cross-section shot :)
Thanks everyone! I'm much better now. Cold sore is still on my lip...damn thing wish I could just eat it off, but then I'd be left we oozing gaping bloodiness, so might just leave it alone.
Hi Maria Hope you are feeling better. I think the worst part of being sick (I had the flu myself for THREE weeks and two doses of antibiotics) is that you can't taste anything!
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