Oysters and Asparagus with Spinach and Lemon-Butter Sauce
Located on Cape Cod, Chillingsworth is a gem, time-travel with fine food and lovely guest rooms. But get there in time for Thanksgiving, or you’ll have to wait for next season. This appetizer is a wonderful start to a Chillingsworth meal, or any holiday meal: a plump salty oyster served on a mound of sauteed spinach with asparagus spears, bathed in lemon-butter sauce. The puff pastry round adds a crisp touch to each appetizer.
Ingredients
- Lemon-Butter Sauce
- Egg - 1
- Lemon Juice - 1-1/2 tablespoons
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- Unsalted Butter - 1 lb, melted to 160 F
- Chicken Stock - 2 tablespoons (optional)
- Chives - 6, chopped
- Salmon Caviar - 1/4 cup
- Unsalted Butter - 3 tablespoons
- Spinach - 2 cups fresh, stemmed
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- Asparagus - 16 spears, trimmed and blanched
- Puff Pastry - 4 rounds, split in half horizontally
- Oysters - 4 large
Instructions
To prepare the sauce: Put the egg and lemon juice in a food processor and season with salt and pepper. Pulse to combine. With the machine running, slowly pour in the melted butter, as if making mayonnaise. If the consistency is too thick to pour, thin with a little chicken stock until about as thick as maple syrup. Set aside over tepid water or in an insulated container until ready to use.
In a large non-stick saute pan, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter and add the spinach. Stir gently and saute until the spinach wilts. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside. In another saute pan, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and saute the asparagus spears until hot.
To serve: Place the bottom half of a puff pastry round on each serving plate, slightly above the center. Mound each with sauteed spinach. Place four asparagus spears on each, fanning so that the stalk ends are together on the spinach, and the tips are fanned over the plates. Heat a non-stick saute pan over medium-high heat. Place the oysters in the pan and cook for about 30 seconds, just enough to firm. Place an oyster on top of the stalk ends of each asparagus fan, over the puff pastry-spinach base. Stir the chopped chives and salmon caviar into the lemon-butter sauce. Spoon sauce over the oysters and onto the plates. Lean a puff pastry top against each appetizer.
