[Recipe] Quick Steamed Oysters and Green Onions with Yuzu
Introduction
There are many foods that are in season during winter. I love reading and occasionally re-reading "Cooking Almanac" by Hamako Tatsumi, a pioneer of culinary research. This book records how to handle and cook ingredients by season and theme. Looking at the "Winter" section of the table of contents, it lists salmon, cod, shrimp, oysters, sea cucumber, dried fish, daikon radish, Chinese cabbage, small turnips, Japanese yam, taro, raw vegetables and simmered dishes, osechi, mochi, yuzu, mandarin oranges... and the list goes on.
It is also strange that "raw vegetables and simmered dishes" appears abruptly among the ingredients. Apparently, at that time (around the first half of the Showa 40s?), schools taught young people that "you should eat vegetables raw as much as possible because their nutrients are lost (when heated)."
Reading the author's indignation upon hearing this—saying it is "ridiculous" and that "we must study much more about what kind of nourishment these nutrients, which seem to have disappeared during cooking, actually become and how they work in the body, rather than just thinking about the nutritional values (numbers) when raw"—gives me pause, as I am someone who tends to be swayed by short-term numerical magic.
Well then, for that reason, today I am making a quick winter steam using oysters, long green onions, and yuzu. Although these ingredients are available even in early spring, I recommend pairing plump winter oysters with long green onions that have also grown thick and sweet. The combination of the soft, sweet onions and the tart yuzu is superb.
If you make this with onions so juicy that liquid drips the moment you cut them, you cannot go wrong. My husband loves the plump oysters, and I love the melt-in-your-mouth sweet long green onions, but when we eat silently so as not to let the other take our favorites, they disappear in an instant. By the way, why is it that the sake disappears too...?
[Ingredients (for 2 people)]
8-10 oysters (for cooking) (160-200g)
1 long green onion
1 yuzu
1 tbsp sake
Salt to taste
[Instructions]
1. Place the oysters in a bowl filled with salted water and gently swirl to wash them. (Change the water 1-2 times until no more dirt comes out from the gills). Gently pat dry with a paper towel. Cut the long green onion into 6cm lengths and slice them in half lengthwise. Slice the yuzu into 7-8mm thin rounds.
If they are very dirty, you can also try coating them with potato starch before rinsing.
2. Place the ingredients from step 1 into a small pot and add the sake. Cover and steam over medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Serve on a plate along with the cooking juices.
Turn off the heat once the oysters are cooked and plump.
Tips for making
Since the oysters themselves have salt content, please taste and add salt as you like.
When putting them in the pot, lay down the long green onions first, then layer the oysters and yuzu on top so that the oysters cook gently. I placed the green parts of the onions on top of the oysters this time because I wanted to keep their beautiful color.
I happened to receive some yuzu from a field last week, so I combined them with winter-tasting oysters.
The bumpy texture is also lovely.
This time, I finished it in a Japanese style with yuzu and sake, making it a dish that calls for sake. Why is it that I want to drink cold sake even though it is a cold winter?
By the way, if you swap in lemon and white wine, it would undoubtedly go well with a crisp, chilled white wine. But is a bubbly sparkling wine hard to pass up too?
Please feel free to choose according to your preference.