Trish Deseine

Huîtres chaudes au champagne

Oysters grilled in a champagne sabayon

Preparation info
  • For

    4

    • Difficulty

      Easy

Appears in
Nobody Does it Better: Why French Cooking is still the best in the world
Nobody Does it Better

By Trish Deseine

Published 2007

  • About

This is a wonderfully festive dish. Of course you do not need to splash out on champagne - a good white wine, or even cider, would do. But the oysters-and-champagne sauce combination feels so rich and decadent it’s a shame not to go the whole way.

Ingredients

  • 24 (2 dozen) large deep oysters, for example, fines de clairs
  • About 1 kg coarse sea salt

Method

Open the oysters over a large bowl in order to catch the water held in their shells, and set the flesh aside. Filter the liquid to remove any fragments of shell and pour it into a saucepan.

Spread a deep layer of the sea salt on a large tray. Carefully clean the bottom half of each shell and wedge them steady into the salt.

Bring the oyster water to the boil and poach the oyster