A few weeks back we served our Blue Grass Bistro Menu. As usual we’d been late to promote it. I’d finally dragged a menu out of Stu and Paul and sent it off to Laura: Laura does a lot of our social media these days. This generally involves voice messages flying back and forth between me and her early in a morning.
This is my time.
When I’m sat in the swine alone, no blenders whizzing off at inopportune moments. No loud banging of pans or crashing of metal trays. It’s the quiet before the storm. So I tend to sit with my first cup of coffee and record some words about our food. I don’t envy Laura’s job as she tries to understand my messages attempting to describe the thoughts and processes behind our dishes.
The Blue Grass menu was a tricky one for me to describe. This menu is Paul’s brainchild. In fact, if something has that southern US feel to it on our menu, it’s most likely come from Paul. I’m used to describing Stu’s food. Stu is very European. He’s old-school French. In the summer he’s Italian. Sometimes he’s a bit Spanish. But Paul, he’s very Stateside.
This menu was full of unfamiliar words and terms. Things I vaguely remember having heard on American TV but never actually seen on a menu. I certainly had never eaten much of it. I mean what even is “succotash’???
Fortunately, Laura and I are getting used to each other and she managed to produce some posts that, in turn, managed to attract some diners eager to try something a bit different. And we filled up.
It was a busy night. A full house. I worked out front, with help from Paul. But mainly Paul was making cocktails. Stu was on mains. And Mike was starters and snacks. And for snacks there was Deep Fried Oysters. Have you eaten a deep-fried oyster? I hadn’t. I’ve eaten many many oysters. If there is an oyster on a menu, then I am there for it. But I’m an oyster purist. I don’t want you to mess with my oyster. I want it to taste of the sea. Don’t be adding obscure ingredients to my oyster. If you must, I’ll have some shallots and red wine vinegar. But then step away and leave me and my oyster alone.
So deep-fried oysters were something of a revelation.
Maybe it wasn’t the oyster. Maybe it was the end of a busy night. We were all a little tired. We were all a little hungry. We’d worked pretty hard most of that day, and the day before, prepping for the one-off menu. Maybe it was the “Home On The Range” cocktail Paul served me with the oyster. It could have been the addition of the Green Sauce on the side. Who knows. But, standing there in the tiny kitchen at The Swine, with that oyster and that cocktail, I experienced one of the best food moments of my life.
Deep Fried Oysters.
Who knew????
RECIPE
GREEN MAYO
250g Spinach
3 Green Chillies
3 Cloves Garlic
500g Aioli or Good Shop Bough Mayo
Blanch the spinach in a pan of salted boiling water. 30 seconds should do it. Remove the spinach from the pan and plunge into a bowl of iced water to stop the cooking process and keep the colour. This is important for something called “Green Mayo”. Drain the spinach when its cool enough to handle and then squeeze out the excess water.
Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan. Add the chillies and garlic and cook until the skin of the chilli is scorched and blistered. Tip the contents of the pan into a blender with the spinach. Blend until smooth, add extra oil if the blender needs a little help. Stir this puree through your mayo. If you feel the dip needs some acidity then add a squeeze of lime or a splash of white wine vinegar.
