kosher kitchen design ideas
- welcome back tosmash's kitchen. we're here, we're live, it'sfreezing outside, but it's warm in here, it's actuallygoing to get a lot hotter. (rock music) guys, i'm really excited, wehave canadian, that's right, canadian prince edward islandmalpeque oysters, fresh off the boat, well, it came inon a boat and then, you know, driven here, but they're freshas you can get them here. okay, what we're going todo is i'm going to show you
quick, easy tip on shuckingan oyster without getting this thing through yourhand, i've done it, it hurts, and then i'm going toprepare a nice mignonette to go along with your oyster. come in close, guys,i'm going to show you how to do this properly. first of all, you're goingto want to clean the oysters, always clean your oysters,it's very important. you don't want tobe putting this
in your mouth andeating sand, okay? you can just get a simplebrush, clean it off, run it under some coldwater, and you're good to go. what you will see on the bottomend, here, of the oyster, you'll see a little gap,sometimes you won't see the gap, it'll be hard, you'll kind-ofhave to chisel your way down to find that, but that'sgoing to be your pecking point when you're startingwith your oyster. you can get these anywhere,it's a simple oyster shucker.
i left this thing, i don'tknow where, i had people coming over, couldn'tfind my oyster shucker, went to the oldtool box, picked out a flathead screwdriver,it does the job. as long as you knowthe technique, youcould use anything. i always bring a clothwith me, for two reasons. one, it gives you goodgrip on the oyster when you're about to shuck it. nobody wants to have arazor-sharp edge in their hand
while you're shuckingoyster, it's dangerous, okay? get yourself a cloth,find that pecking point. it's very simple, it's asimple twist, just like so. all i did was i applieda little bit of pressure, a simple twist, and you cansee already that the oyster has opened slightly and avery, very important thing is, you don't want to loseany of these juices, okay? so when you're shuckingyour oyster, don't go crazy, don't be flipping itaround, keep it steady.
now what i like to do isi'll simply grab my shucker, run it through the topof the shell, okay? and i'm just going toslightly open the oyster and pull this apart, okay? and you will see that youhave a perfect oyster. grab your shucker, yourflathead screwdriver, your fork, whatever it isyou're using, okay, and just be gentlewith the oyster. you got to be really gentlewith it, and just lift it
right off the top, and you wantto keep everything in tact. very important thing, thereis a little membrane here that you want to detachfrom the oyster, okay? it's very important you dothat, because you don't want to serve this to someoneand they're sitting there slurping it and nothing'shappening, except you're getting a whole bunch of sand andoyster juice down your throat. you don't want that, you want that oyster to go down smooth.
and we're going toprepare a really nice condiment to go along side this. (trumpet music) basically what we're goingto do here, we're going to prepare somethingreal simple, easy to do, that's going to complimentour really nice oysters. this is called amignonette, and mignonette. (camera zooming into focus) some sort of tartnessthat you're going
to add to your oyster. there's so many differenttypes of mignonettes. my favorite one, themost refreshing onethat i like to do, is a cucumber applecider vinegar mignonette. so, it's very simple,you start off with simple apple cider vinegarwith some brown sugar. i have about a cup ofapple cider vinegar and about a tablespoonof brown sugar. i know it sounds like a lotof sugar out there for you
diabetics, but believe me,you're going to need it, okay? next thing, guys, getyour razor-sharp knife, i'm pretty sure thisone's razor-sharp, and you're going to want tofinely dice that cucumber, okay? simple thing, you wantto cut your cucumber in very thin strands, and whatyou're going to do is simple, use your hands as a guide, andyou're going to want to cut very, very thin strandsof this cucumber, okay? and you're going to turn itthis way, and what you're
going to do is just runyour knife and create really really smalldices with this cucumber. when you are putting thison top of your oyster, which is very important, okay? let me give this a quick mix. when you're adding yourmixture to the oyster, nobody wants to eat abig chunk of cucumber. the oyster is the main eventhere, not the cucumber, okay? all this cucumber is goingto do is add a little bit
of crunch and freshnessto this mignonette, okay? we're going to give her alittle bit of mix, okay? and you'll see it'sgot beautiful colors. very simple, apple cidervinegar, brown sugar, finely, finely diced cucumber,and you have yourself a beautiful cucumber applecider vinaigrette mignonette. (jazz music) now, we've shucked a reallybeautiful malpeque canadian oyster, now it's allabout the presentation.
here's a very, very simpletip when you're plating. now, i just have a reallysmall plate because i'm going to be plating one oyster. if you have family and friendscoming over for a gathering and you want to presentit on a bigger scale, that's fine, just maximizethe size that you have and i'm going to tell youhow you're going to work. basically, when you're plating,i usually use the center of the plate as mypeaking point, okay?
in this case, we're doing anoyster, so i want my oyster to be the center of attention. you can build all around itwith garnishes, and side plates, and side dishes, and sauces,but at the end of the day, the oyster is the main event. so, we're going to havethat front and center, and then we're goingto build around it. first thing, kosher salt. kosher salt is really nicewhen you're using oysters, why?
because it's athicker grain of salt. you don't want to have tablesalt, anything too fine, because what's going to happen, it's going to getlost on the plate. you need it to stand out, soi'm simply just going to add some kosher salt right tothe center of the plate. again, i'm building fromthe center outwards, okay? we have your beautiful malpequeoyster, perfectly shucked, all the juices, i'm justgoing to lay that center,
right on top of the kosher salt. now, you have 3-dimage of this oyster. it's popping out of the plate. now we can build around. simple, easy things, whatcompliments an oyster? fresh lemons, i'm goingto take this lemon, i'm going to cut it likeso, i'm just going to grab a small, tiny wedge, why? because it's one oyster,again, if you're making
a massive amount, cut awhack of lemon wedges, build around that oyster,it will always look nice. so, again, i'm just going toadd the lemon to the plate. couple other things iwant to use is some purple and green amaranth, now,this is not the easiest thing to find, but you canuse chive tips, you can use lemongrass tips, youcan use popcorn shoots, anything that looksnice and has nice color. again, this is allfor presentation.
i'm going to line this rightup on top of the oyster, okay, and last but notleast, we have that really wonderful cucumbermignonette that we made. we're going to take this,we're just going to dab a little bit on top ofthe oyster, not too much, 'cause again, you don'twant it to take away from the oysteritself, just like so. again, i like to finish offmy oyster with a little bit of heat, i'm using freshtabasco sauce here,
just a little bit, youdon't want to add too much. a lot of people like touse fresh horseradish. i'm going the tabasco route. you've got your amaranthhere for your finish garnish right there, one of nature'sfinest aphrodisiacs. your guests are going tobe blown away with this. serve it like this all thetime and i promise you, people will be talking aboutit for the rest of the night.