Freezing crevettes!!

[zeb]

H i - am not able to get to the supermarket on Friday (hospital again uurrrrrrgh!) so couldn't order a plat de mer.

Is it Ok to buy the crevettes, prawns and langoustines (and, perhaps, oysters) from the fish counter sometime this week and freeze them ready for Christmas eve or is this a big no no?

They are usually scoffed as soon as bought.

Also - hate to admit this but have never bought fresh oysters? Do you just open and serve them with lemon juice and pepper or do they have to be cooked or something. Di's not going to forgive me for this as I come from a region of Essex famous for.......oysters!

And......have bought raison and cognac stuffed quails - how long do you cook them for?

And......can someone recommend a marinade for sanglier?

regards.......helen (usually eat the posh stuff in restaurants)

[Russethouse]

I think freezing the sea food will alter the texture when thawed, couldn't you buy them Thursday and turn your fridge to its lowest setting ?

Oysters can be eaten raw or grilled. For raw you can make a little dish of choped onion (shallots for preference) and wine vinegar if you like it, but lemon juice is acceptable too.

Lunch at yours sounds great

Good luck at the hospital

[Iceni]

Hi Helen

As someone who is feeling rather unwell due to the fact that I ate mussels last night (which I cleaned and cooked myself so I know they were done properly) perhaps I am not the right person to answer this. I have problems with shellfish and have managed (so I thought) to get over the problem in the last 15 years, not so .

My advice is never ever freeze crustaceans of any sort, many have been frozen and unless alive and kicking I assume they have.  Buy and eat the same day or do not bother. I can only eat oysters with Tabasco and it might be a wee while till I try even that.

Oysters are eaten raw - put lemon juice on them when opened and if really fresh they even move a bit (they don't like the lemon 'up-'em'). I add Tabasco as I like a kick with mine.

I hope that you enjoy your Christmas food.

No idea how long you cook the other stuff or make the marinade - sorry, not eaten sanglier at home yet. Check the internet for recipes, I went on a fantastic gourmet cookery course in Mayenne this year and we cooked quail, rather nice, also did confit of rabbit - now that really was something else. I am already looking at doing the advanced next year, if only they were closer.

I have to cook the stuff, can't afford to eat in posh resturants having had our private pension forecast - which we paid into for yonks, will not even pay for our weekly cheese bill - 10 years ago they were suggesting we could live the life of riley on the same pot - ho hum, lucky I can cook. I am advising my children not to pay into private pensions unless they can afford 15% of their income each year or get into a company scheme. Total waste of time and their money.

John says get your priorities right and go and buy the food, typical man, all he thinks about is food .

[Judyc]

Hi Helen

I always check with whoever I buy them from that their prawns have not been frozen before and our local Geant always has fresh ones.  Never freeze them if you are unsure.  They do lose texture after being frozen though.

If you are a novice to opening oysters though, can I just warn you to be very careful and wrap a tea towel around your hand first.  Use a proper oyster knife (available from the supermarket) and perhaps ask the counter asssistant to show you how and where to open them.   I watch my husband doing this from time to time, and virtually have the car keys in my hand to whisk him to casualty as he never looks entirely competent!!!

Judy 47 Lot-et-Garonne

[Dick Smith]

Oysters will live happily* in the fridge for several days. When you come to open them be careful as Judy says! Also discard any which do not resist, they are dead and dodgy. You can get a knife in many big supermarkets which has a pincher on it - you use this to break the seal and the oyster is then easier to open. The downside is that you get more bits of shell in which you have to clean out.

*I have not canvassed the views of oysters on the veracity of this statement.

[zeb]

Many thanks for the responses so far.......  I think we will steer clear of the oysters unless an expert turns up!

My neighbour has just given me a recipe for marinating the sanglier (which was happily marauding through the undergrowth a couple of days ago):-

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon wine vinegar

garlic clove chopped

sprig of tyme and bay leaf - crushed

chopped parsley

put with meat into a dish and spoon marinate over meat several times a day. Sanglier should be marinated for 4 or 5 days and can be cooked in the same way as pork (!)

PS Dick - is it marinade or marinate???

Thanks for the good wishes Gay, we have visitors and friends arriving for traditional Christmas eve meal and am trying to prepare most of it in advance. Did you detect the note of panic?whistling:

Di - hope your tummy is better. Will ask someone to collect the seafood on Friday!!

regards.........helen

 

[Iceni]

Hi Helen

Glad you have organised someone to pick up the seafood. I have remembered that once shellfish die they emit an enzyme which breaks down the flesh and makes it rather nasty.

I am sending John out tomorrow shopping as I am making gravadlax for Christmas day. I normally make it out of the cheap pink salmon but won't have to fillet the fish this time as we are making it with fresh red salmon. It is very festive as it has a good scotch whisky added to the other ingredients. It takes 3 or 4 days to 'cook' in the fridge as it is a chunky version and not a thinly sliced version which I think is pretty tasteless. That and a walnut gateau is all I have to make for Christmas day - organised that well. John even cracks the 8 ozs of shelled nuts I require so not a lot of work for me then at all.

Hope you have a wonderful day and a great Christmas.

[Diana]

I can't remember where I got this recipe from but it is very good. Where we are in Normandy oysters are very cheap and even cheaper still if you find your own washed up on the beach after a rough sea. I have prepared it for UK friends when visiting and they think we must have won the lottery to be prepared to make soup from them.

Diana

Oyster Soup with a side plate of battered oysters

 

36 Oysters

1 Finely chopped onion

½ Bulb finely chopped fennel

80gm Butter

600ml Hot fish stock

100ml Cream

100ml White wine

Squeeze of lemon

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Chopped chives for decoration

 

For the batter mix:

4 tablespoons of corn flour

2 tablespoons of plain flour

Sesame seeds

¼ can of Guinness

Vegetable oil

 

Open the oysters, drain the liquor from 24 of the oysters into a glass and dry the remaining 12 oysters.

 

Leave the 12 oysters to one side, keeping their shells.

 

Leave the liquor from the oysters to settle for a few minutes to allow any grit or sediment to sink to the bottom of the glass, strain this and leave to one side.

 

Meanwhile melt the butter in a saucepan, add the onion and fennel and allow to sweat for a few minutes.  Add the white wine and reduce until nearly dry.

 

Add the hot fish stock along with the strained oyster juice and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat and allow to simmer.

 

Add the oysters and cook for about a minute.

 

Blitz with a hand blender and strain the soup into a clean saucepan.  Bring to the boil, add the cream, cayenne pepper and the lemon and allow to simmer for a few minutes.

 

Serve in a soup glass or bowl and decorate with the chopped chives.

 

To make the batter, mix the two flours and the sesame seeds together, them add the Guinness.  Dip the 12 oysters into the batter and deep fry in hot vegetable oil for a few minutes.  Put the oysters back in the reserved shells and serve on the side of the soup.

 

[Dick Smith]

PS Dick - is it marinade or marinate???

Either! A lot of people use marinate as a verb and marinade as a noun, so they marinate something in a marinade, but you can use marinade as a verb as well. I don't think you can use marinate as a noun.

Don't give up on the oysters - they really are worth the trouble. I could just go a half-doz at the moment with a glass of Guinness, but not at UK prices!

[Russethouse]

48p each at Tescos, Dick. I have just returned from a visit to their fish counter.

[LesLauriers]

[quote]48p each at Tescos, Dick. I have just returned from a visit to their fish counter.[/quote]

Extortionate !!!

That's more than twice the price here in 24!!!

>>And......have bought raison and cognac stuffed quails - how long do you cook them for?

30 - 40 minutes at 190 should be about right.

[Dick Smith]

[quote]48p each at Tescos, Dick. I have just returned from a visit to their fish counter.[/quote]

Awful! I've just got back from the pub where we were fantasising about oysters and Guinness and Young's Christmas Pudding Ale...

No chance, of course. We have brought our own oysters in from time to time but shaming the management doesn't work.

[Alexis]

We have a burriche (sp) of oysters as part of the works' present.  Normally 36.  We will be having them 'as normal' but I shall do some warm too.  They are nice like that too.

[Battypuss]

We are currently benificieries of the Restos de Coeur, which means we get a weird and wonderful selection of free food each week. Next monday we get oysters! As self and kids don't actually eat them (but can open with alacrity), Polly is taking them fishing in the hope of catching a zander...talk about a sprat to catch a mackeral!

[Quillan]

A post has been removed from this thread because it was not relevant to original post.

 

I have also deleted a post beneath as without the first post the second means nothing.

 

Moderator

[Dick Smith]

I saw that post - well done.