The decadent Oysters Rockefeller has quite a history. To this day, the original recipe has been kept hush-hush and therefore, there had been a lot of variation to the recipe.
Oysters Rockefeller was invented at Antoine’s restaurant in New Orleans in 1899. At that time there was a shortage of French escargot (snails) and oysters were the next best thing.
Because of the richness of the sauce for the oysters, Jules Alciatore, the inventor, named his new concoction after the richest man in the US at that time, John D Rockefeller.
“Oysters rockefeller” by Pachango – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oysters_rockefeller.jpg#/media/File:Oysters_rockefeller.jpg
Oysters Rockefeller Recipe
Ingredients:
- 3 dozens fresh oysters on the half shell
- 6oz butter
- 2 slices of stale bread
- a big bunch of spinach
- 2 medium onions, quartered
- a bunch of parsley
- Tabasco sauce to taste
- 1 tsp anise-flavoured liqueur
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Method of Preparation:
To make life easier, use a food processor to cut, chop and minced the slices of bread to turn into bread crumbs. Add the spinach, onions and parsley. Blend until they have been minced finely and smooth.
Gently melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add the blended breaded spinach, onion and parsley mix and stir constantly for 10 minutes to cook. To this add the tabasco sauce, the liqueur and season with salt. Cook for another minute.
At this point, start preheating the grill.
Spread some rock salt into a baking tin/tray and arrange the oysters in their shells on the rock salt.
Divide the topping of bread crumbs onto the oysters and grill or broil until golden on top.
Serve with chilled champagne!