This week a celebration of the return of the native Irish Oyster, considered by chefs and aficionados to be the most exquisitely deliciously briny oyster. Only the tiny Olympia (Ostrea lurida) from the Puget Sound on the West Coast of the US comes anywhere close.
Gigas oysters are available year round, so you may not have noticed that the native Irish oyster (Ostrea edulis) was virtually unavailable for over a decade.
The species had become virtually extinct due to overfishing and disease.
Ireland has long been famous for the quality of its oysters.
Oyster middens have been discovered in virtually every bay around our coastline. Early Irish settlers, right back to the bronze age, feasted on the native Irish oyster. At one point they were so plentiful and cheap that they were used to bulk out other dishes like this delicious beef and oyster pie from Myrtle Allen’s The Ballymaloe Cookbook published in 1977.
Award winning Rossmore Oysters established in 1969 have farmed the bivalves in Cork Harbour near Carrigtwohill for over 50 years. Despite challenges, they continued to breed the ‘natives’. The tireless work David Hugh-Jones and his team did over the years paid off and now they have a plentiful supply of native Irish oysters, both for the home market and export to five European countries.
Special congratulations to David’s sons Rupert and Tristan Hugh-Jones of Rossmore Oysters who recently won the Water Award at the Euro-Toques Food Awards 2024 for their exceptional native Irish oysters and significant contribution to regenerative aquaculture in Ireland.
The ‘native’ Irish oyster is only in season when there is an R in the month. I enjoy them best, ‘au nature’ with perhaps a tiny squeeze of lemon juice, nothing else to mask their exquisite delicate flavour. The curvy gigas, available year around are also delicious just as they are, but their deep shells lend themselves to many toppings too. They are also divine cooked lightly and served with beurre blanc or a champagne sauce.
Altogether, I’ve had a brilliant week of oysters. I was delighted to receive an invitation from Richard Corrigan to judge the Best Dressed Oyster Competition at the London Oyster Championships at Bentley’s in Mayfair. Can you imagine – I tasted sixteen oysters with all manner of creative toppings, some more appealing than others but the winner was Tom Brown of The Pearly Queen Shoreditch with Irish chef Robin Gill from Darby’s Oyster Bar a close second.
Tom’s oysters topped with a green salsa and a slurp of tequila were inspired by his sojourn in Mexico while Robin Gill’s had hints of pickled dulse mignonette and nori powder.
Tom Brown’s Oysters with Seaweed Hot Sauce
Makes 20
20 oysters
Seaweed Hot Sauce
250g green tomatoes
250g green peppers
125g fresh jalapenos
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
25g caster sugar
150g cider vinegar
2 tbsp seaweed powder (available from the Connemara Organic Seaweed Company – www.connemaraseaweedcompany.ie)
tequila
Chargrill all the vegetables until blackened, place in a bowl and cover lightly with cling film. Leave to steam. When cool, remove all the skins and seeds from the green peppers, add garlic, sugar and vinegar then pulse until a semi smooth finish. Mix in the seaweed powder and adjust the seasoning as necessary.
Spoon the mixture over the oyster in the shell. Enjoy them, fill the empty shell with tequila and slurp!
Robin Gill’s Oysters with Oyster Cream, Pickled Dulse Mignonette and Nori Powder
Serves 12
Oyster Cream
200g crème fraîche
shallot reduction made from: 3 shallots, finely diced covered with white wine and reduce to a glaze in a pan
½ bunch each dill, chervil, tarragon and parsley, coarsely chopped
5 fresh oysters shucked and chopped
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and place in a piping bag.
Nori/Dill Oil
5 nori sheets
½ bunch dill (one can use chervil or tarragon or parsley if desired), coarsely chopped
200ml rapeseed oil
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Toast the nori sheet in the preheated oven for 5 minutes.
Pop into a food processor and blend to a powder (reserve half for dusting the oyster before serving).
Add the chopped herbs to half the nori powder and rapeseed oil and blend until smooth
Pickled Dulse Mignonette
3 shallots, diced
100g dried dulce, chopped
200ml red wine vinegar
Put the diced shallot and dulse into a small bowl.
Cover with red wine vinegar and allow to rehydrate for 10-15 minutes.
To Serve
Open the oysters, reserve the oysters and clean the shells.
Spoon a dollop of the oyster cream onto the bottom of each shell
Place an oyster on top, then a spoonful
of the mignonette. Drizzle with a little nori/dill oil, add a
sprinkling of the nori powder and garnish with a sprig of dill. Enjoy.
Myrtle’s Beef and Oyster Pie
This delicious pie for autumn evenings may seem very contemporary but it dates back to a time when oysters were so plentiful and inexpensive that they were used to bulk out meat pies – really worth making, the flavour is rich and unctuous.
Serves 4-6
675g best quality beef, e.g., round steak, best chuck or thick rib steak
salt and freshly ground pepper
25g butter
1 large onion, chopped (approx. 225g)
1 tbsp white flour
600ml homemade beef stock
225g sliced mushrooms
12 Gigas or Native Irish oysters
roux if necessary (equal quantities of flour and butter cooked on a low heat for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally)
250g puff pastry
egg wash
Cut the beef into 4cm cubes, season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Melt a little butter in a frying pan and seal the meat over a high heat. Remove the meat to a plate, add the onions to the pan and cook for 5-6 minutes approx. Add the flour, stir and cook for 1 minute. Blend in the stock, add the meat and bring to the boil. Transfer to a casserole, cover and simmer on a low heat or cook in a low oven for 1 ½ – 2 hours.
Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms in a little butter, season with salt and pepper and keep aside. Open the oysters and put in a bowl with their juice. When the meat is tender thicken the juice slightly with roux if necessary. Add the mushrooms, oysters and their juice to the stew. Bring back to the boil for 2-3 minutes, taste for seasoning. Allow to get cold, put into a pie dish, cover with the pastry. Brush with egg wash and cook in a hot oven 250°C/Gas Mark 9 for 10 minutes, reduce the heat to moderate 180°C/Gas Mark 4 and cook for a further 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden.
Serve with a salad of seasonal leaves.