DILL OIL and BUTTERMILK

Ingredients

1 dozen Oysters

50g Fresh dill

100g Irish Extra Virgin Rapeseed Oil

150ml buttermilk

Method

1. Heat the oil with your chosen herbs in a pot until it reaches 60C and then set aside to infuse. Blitz and strain through a fine sieve

2. Just before Serving: Shuck the oysters carefully and ensure any shell fragments have been removed.

3. Dress the oysters with a teaspoonful of buttermilk and a few drops of your herb oil

4. Serve immediately

SEAWEED VINEGAR

Ingredients

10g dried sweet kelp

100g white wine vinegar

50g water

25g sugar

Method

1. Add all the ingredients to a small pot and heat until the sugar has dissolved.

2. Transfer to a jar and allow to infuse for at least a day.

3. You can use this in place of vinegar in any recipe. To use with oysters simply add a few drops of vinegar and a splash of good quality extra virgin oil on top of a freshly shucked oyster and enjoy.

ELDERBERRY & BLOOB VELVET CLOUD GRANITA

Ingredients

Makes 750ml of granita

125g Water

15g Sugar

60g Elderberries

60g Frozen Blueberries

500g Velvet Cloud Sheep’s yoghurt

65g Extra Virgin Rapeseed Oil

20g Seaweed Vinegar

A Pinch of Salt to season

2 dozen oysters

Method

1. At least six hours in advance: Add all of the ingredients (except the oysters!) to a blender and blitz for about 1 minute until you achieve a really vibrant purple colour.

2. Strain through a fine sieve to remove any bits.

3. Transfer to a container and freeze for one hour. Remove from the freezer and run a fork through the mixture, which should have started to freeze by now (how quickly this happens will depend on the strength of your freezer). Return to the freezer and repeat this process every 30 minutes until the mixture has frozen fully and you have a container of lovely, fluffy granita.

4. Shuck the oysters. Cover with a layer of granita. Serve immediately.

Shucking oysters can certainly be a bit of an art form, and there are even competitions at oyster festivals. But anyone can learn to shuck a perfect oyster, maybe not as quickly as the competitors, but that’s fine; we are here to savour the experience of a slow food moment. Good shucking essentially boils down to technique – which you can master through practice – and a good knife. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on an oyster knife to get a good one. The most important thing is that the blade is strong and rigid, and that it runs right through the handle. This minimizes the risk of it snapping.

Method

(Right handed shucking)

1. To shuck the oysters you will need a shucking knife and a tea towel. Place the oyster on a folded tea towel, folding the tea towel back over your left hand, use this fold to hold the oyster, belly down with the hinge (the point) facing toward your right hand. You can also use a pair of gardening gloves which will provide protection to both hands.

2. Insert the tip of the knife at the hinge at an angle parallel to the slope of the belly. Do this slowly, but firmly, you really need to get the tip of the knife so that you’re able to lift the oyster using the knife. Depending on where the oysters are from you might need to give more gusto to this than others. A general rule of thumb is that the smaller and more delicate the oyster, the less force you’ll need to open it. Be careful not to force the blade fully into the belly of the oyster, or you’ll damage the meat.

3. Once the tip of the knife is in, bring your wrist down towards the surface you are shucking on and twist in a clockwise direction, the oyster will open with a pop.

4. Turn the knife so it is parallel to the top shell and run it back along the shell. This will cut the adductor mussel and allow you to remove the top shell. Discard the liquid from the shell.

5. At this point, I loosen the skirt and dip the oyster quickly in cold water, to remove any shell debris, although this is optional.

6. Next, cut the lower adductor mussel by scraping the knife between the shell and the mussel. Flip the meat so that the belly side points upwards, et voila.

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