Recipe no. 141 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 75.
Ingredients
- oysters
- gratin sauce
- mushrooms
- truffles
- batter
- parsley
- tomato sauce
Preparation
- Preparing the saucePrepare a gratin sauce (see this sauce), which you keep a little thick and well filled with mushrooms and truffles.
- Cooking the oystersSeparately, open a dozen oysters, detach them from the shell and put them with their liquor in a small saucepan, cook them a few minutes covered; take them out onto a plate then, and add their cooking liquid to the prepared gratin sauce, then reduce it and let it cool halfway.
- Dipping in the sauceTake the oysters one after another with a needle and dip them into the gratin sauce to then arrange them on a large dish, put another small spoonful of sauce on each and let them cool completely; they should then be firm to the touch.
- FryingWhen ready to serve you will have a frying pan full of boiling oil. Take the oysters with a spoon, dip them one by one in the batter and plunge them into the fat; the oysters must have plenty of room in the pan, that is, not touch each other. This operation requires care and must be done very briskly. As soon as fried, serve at once.
- PlatingThey are arranged in a bush shape on a folded napkin, with fried parsley beside them and accompanied by a tomato sauce in a sauceboat.
Reboul's text
Prepare a gratin sauce (see this sauce), which you keep a little thick and well filled with mushrooms and truffles. Separately, open a dozen oysters, detach them from the shell and put them with their liquor in a small saucepan, cook them a few minutes covered; take them out onto a plate then, and add their cooking liquid to the prepared gratin sauce, then reduce it and let it cool halfway. Take the oysters one after another with a needle and dip them into the gratin sauce to then arrange them on a large dish, put another small spoonful of sauce on each and let them cool completely; they should then be firm to the touch. When ready to serve you will have a frying pan full of boiling oil. Take the oysters with a spoon, dip them one by one in the batter and plunge them into the fat; the oysters must have plenty of room in the pan, that is, not touch each other. This operation requires care and must be done very briskly. As soon as fried, serve at once.
They are arranged in a bush shape on a folded napkin, with fried parsley beside them and accompanied by a tomato sauce in a sauceboat.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| ùstri | oysters |
| sausso | gratin sauce |
| champignoun | mushrooms |
| rabas | truffles |
| past | batter |
| fregiduro | fat for frying |
| juvert | parsley |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 141, page 75. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.