Oyster Stew & Cornbread
Oyster Stew is an old Virginia favorite and topped with cornbread makes it a hearty southern meal.
Oyster Stew
Ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ cup onion – brunoise*
- 1/4 cup celery – brunoise*
- 4 tablespoon sherry
- 1-quart heavy cream
- 16 shucked Virginia oysters
- 6 slices of bacon - cooked crisp
Directions:
- In a large pot combine sweat onions and celery in the melted butter on medium heat.
- Deglaze with sherry and then add cream.
- Reduce by a quarter.
- Season with salt and pepper and then add the oysters last when heat is off to not overcook the oysters.
- Brunoise is a culinary knife cut in which the food item is first julienned and then turned a quarter turn and diced again, producing cubes of about 3 mm or less on each side, or 1/8-inch dice. In France, a 'brunoise' cut is smaller, 1 to 2 mm on each side, or 1/16-inch dice.
Corn Bread
Ingredients:
- 1 pound flour
- 1 pound cornmeal
- .75 pound sugar
- .7 ounce baking powder
- .2 ounce baking soda
- 7 eggs
- 25 fluid ounce buttermilk
- 8 fluid ounce oil (blend/canola/vegetable)
Directions:
- Combine all dry ingredients and sift.
- Separately mix the wet ingredients well with a whisk.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and incorporate, making sure there are no clumps.
- Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray, scoop 4 ounce of batter into tray
- Bake 325 degrees for 23 minutes, preferably on high convection.
Oyster Stew Assembly
- Place cornbread in middle of bowl, place a large piece of the cooked bacon in the middle of corn bread, pour broth and oysters.