Oyster Coquilles St. Jacques

You can serve this as an appetizer or alongside a large salad as a main dish. It’s pretty to serve this on large oyster or scallop shells, but you can also use small ramekins. The recipe comes from Ray Pingree, Doris Westmoreland Darden Professor in the Manship School of Mass Communication and a recent Rainmaker awardee.

 

 

 

Please buy local, Louisiana ingredients—Oysters had a 2018 farm-gate value of $84 million, with commercial production in seven coastal parishes.
 

Oyster Coquilles St. Jacques

(Makes 1 dozen on large oyster shells or in 6-ounce ramekins)

1/2 pound small bay scallops
1/2 pound raw oyster meat, drained and chopped (reserve the liquor)
5 large potatoes
1/2 cup warm milk
5 egg yolks
1/2 pound mushrooms
1 stick butter
1 onion, finely diced
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
Hard cheese (gruyere, parmesan)

First, peel the potatoes and boil them in salted water. Set your oven to 425 degrees. Wash and dice the mushrooms and sauté in 4 tablespoons of butter for 3-5 minutes; transfer to a mixing bowl and set aside. Melt 2 more tablespoons of butter in the same pan and sauté the onion until translucent and slightly golden. Next, add the scallops and oysters and cook over medium heat for 3-5 minutes; transfer to the mixing bowl with the mushrooms. Deglaze the pan with wine and oyster liquor and reduce over high heat until only about a tablespoon remains. Add cream and reduce again over medium-low heat to about half the volume. Add seafood mix back in and simmer for a minute, adding lemon juice as well as salt and pepper to taste. Transfer seafood mixture onto half-shells or into small ramekins. Once the potatoes are cooked, mash them with warm milk and remaining 2 tablespoons butter and 1 teaspoon salt (you can do this in an electric mixer; be careful to remove all lumps as the mash should be as smooth as possible). Add egg yolks to mash and keep mixing for a minute. Next, place mash in pastry bag and pipe around the edges of the seafood mixture. Grate some hard cheese on top and bake in the oven for 15 minutes until the tops start to brown.

 

 

Elsa Hahne
LSU Office of Research & Economic Development
ehahne@lsu.edu