There is no arguing that I am an oyster fanatic. When I was in San Francisco a couple of years ago, I ordered an oyster stew from the “Hog Island Oyster Company”and remembered thinking how it was just a creamy thick soup with some dollop of oysters. I saw the chef as he made it behind the counter, and remembered making a mental note that I should attempt it someday.
Fast forward to a year ago, I started ordering Japanese seafood quite feverishly and embarked on a whole home-made Chirashi phase. That was when I discovered Japanese frozen oyster meat (L sized ones) and from then on, I made it a point to store some in my fridge for those days when I need an oyster fix.
So here’s my simple recipe for an oyster stew that is easy to make.
Makes 2 big servings.
Ingredients:
- 14 Japanese frozen oysters in L size (wash them quickly under water, then thaw in bowl)
- 4 strips of streaky bacon (cut into small pieces)
- 2 large potatoes (cut into small cubes)
- Full cream fresh milk
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 medium sized onion (I use the purple ones)
- 1 heaped table spoon of flour, mixed with 2.5 tablespoons of water to make a slurry
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Spring Onion
Instructions:
Place bacon in a non-stick pan (use the ones deep enough for soups) with medium heat. Allow the bacon to sear and render till it starts turning brown on the edges. I don’t use any extra oil or butter, I feel the bacon fat does the trick.
Drop in garlic and onions and saute for another 2 mins or so.
Next, drop in the cubed potatoes, and stir fry it for a while, put on the cover to allow it to saute for a while, maybe 5 mins or so, but stir the contents every min or so.
Add in some water, not too much since the remainder of the soup will be made up of milk and oyster juice. Replace the cover and let it boil for about 3 mins, then taste it. At this point in time, add salt and pepper to taste, it’s ok to have it a little salty because you will be adding milk later. Cover and boil under low heat for a while more until the potato has a consistency that you like.
Once you are satisfied with the bite of your potatoes, add in milk to cover the ingredients sufficiently (see picture below). I use milk and not cream because it’s a more convenient item for me to buy and use. Everytime I buy a bottle of cooking cream I end up throwing away the remainders because I end up not using them eventually. With milk, I have the option of drinking it.
Bring it to a nice medium boil and let it rumble for a good minute, and at this juncture, add some salt and pepper and taste it again to get it to the right levels you want. This will be the final level of salt you add so make sure you get it right.
Then, drop in your oysters with their thawed juice. I love these oysters. I get them from Zairyo.sg or the other brand I really like can be bought from i-Chef on Qoo10 (here). Note: I haven’t actually purchased this from i-Chef before but this same brand in the picture was what I bought from another supplier who has kinda gone defunked. The frozen oysters you see now in this picture below is also a good alternative, which I bought from Zairyo.sg. I only go for L sized Jap frozen oysters.
Bring to another rumbling boil but gently flip oysters (you have to be very gentle with them). You can see here that the consistency of the soup is the same as milk for now.
Add in the flour and water slurry to the gently boiling mix. Have a look, this is how the slurry should look like. You have to make sure you use plain flour (not cornstarch else you end up with another kind of consistency). Most importantly, there must be no lumps! Give it a quick stir to make sure that the solution is nice and even before you pour it into your rumbling boiling soup. Stir gently to disperse evenly as you are pouring it in so the flour does not cook in a bunch and end up in lumps. Do it slowly and in small batches in case it thickens up too much. If you feel it has thickened to the consistency you want, stop.
There you have it. This is my desired consistency.
Bring to another rumbling boil but gently flip oysters (you have to be very gentle with them). From the time you add in the oysters to this stage, you should not spend more than 4 minutes. What you do not want to do, is overcook your oysters. They cook very quickly (provided they were fully thawed), so watch them closely.
At this point, I would get my bowl ready and throw some spring onions to the bowl then pour the entire hot soup into the bowl so the spring onions are nicely scalded by the soup. Add some spring onions and pepper to the top for garnish and enjoy it piping hot!
NOTES:
- Potatoes: I like to use those Indonesia potatoes which are suitable for curry because they do not turn too mushy.
- The above yields 2 large servings. But what you see here at the end is just one serving. I had portioned out half before I added in the milk so that I can fridge it for another date (see picture below). If you are planning to do this, it means you also only use half of the stated number of oysters. What I then do is just return the saved up portion to the pan and bring it back up to a boil and add in the milk and follow the steps to completion. Makes a convenient lunch for my work because I can just make it in the morning then bring it to work and heat at lunch time. You should use up this reserve no longer than 5 days after it’s done, and I don’t recommend freezing them because the consistency of the potatoes might turn too mushy.
So there you have it, the JDS Oyster Chowder. Hope you like it.
When The Cat Lady Eats. 