Name: Oyster Velouté with Black Caviar (Velouté aux Huîtres et au Caviar)
Yield: Serves 6 to 8
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 1 to 2 drops fresh lemon juice; Caviar d’Aquitaine; 2 tablespoons black caviar, preferably; Pinch of cayenne; 12 to 15 oysters, shucked, plus their liquor (or, if you buy them shucked, about 1⅓ cups, including liquor); ¾ to 1 cup heavy cream; 3 large egg yolks; 3 cups unsalted fish stock (storebought or homemade); 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 3 tablespoons unsalted butter; 2 shallots, finely chopped; ¾ teaspoon sea salt; 3 cups unsalted chicken stock (storebought or homemade—page 405)

Preparation info

Serves
6 to 8

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Cooking of South West France

By Paula Wolfert

Published 1987

About

Caviar has been taken from the Gironde River since the Russian Revolution. According to one of the many legends, it was the owner of the famous Parisian fish restaurant Prunier who employed Russian refugees to extract and preserve caviar from the Gironde sturgeon. The eggs obtained were of excellent quality, comparable to the best Iranian caviar. Sadly, in the 1950s parts of the Gironde became quite polluted, and caviar production declined; but now, happily, it’s the cleanest estuary in Eur