Baked oysters with sautéed potatoes and seaweed salad
Celebrate the Irish coastline with native oysters topped with garlic breadcrumbs and cheese plus a bladderwrack salad.
Ingredients
For the baked oysters
- 250g/9oz baby spinach
- 4 spring onions, finely sliced
- 100g/3½oz cream cheese
- 30g/1oz unsalted butter
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 60g/2¼oz panko breadcrumbs
- 60g/2¼oz hard sheep’s cheese, like Pecorino, grated
- 12 oysters, opened and removed from the shells, washed and cleaned, keeping the shells
- freshly ground black pepper
For the sautéed potatoes
For the seaweed and lettuce salad
- handful bladderwrack seaweed
- 2 Little Gem lettuces, leaves chopped
- 2 tbsp vinaigrette
To serve
Method
To make the baked oysters, preheat the oven to 240C/220C Fan/Gas 9.
Put a medium sauté pan on a medium heat and add the spinach, then cook for 2 minutes until wilted. Once cool enough to handle, drain and finely chop the wilted spinach.
Place the spinach in a medium glass bowl with the spring onions, add the cream cheese and mix to combine with a little black pepper.
Heat a medium frying pan and add the butter. Once hot and melted add the garlic and cook for 1–2 minutes, then add the breadcrumbs and cook for 3–4 minutes until golden brown and toasted. Mix the toasted breadcrumbs with the hard cheese.
Place the washed oysters back in their shells and top with the cream cheese mix, then add the breadcrumbs and cheese mix. Put the shells on an oven rack or baking tray and place in the oven for 6–8 minutes.
To make the sautéed potatoes, place the whole potatoes in a large saucepan filled with boiling salted water and cook for 15–20 minutes.
Add the seaweed to the potato pan for the final 5 minutes of cooking time.
Remove the seaweed from the pan with tongs or a slotted spoon, and run under cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain the potatoes and allow to cool enough to handle.
Cut the potatoes into slices and sprinkle with salt, then heat a frying pan on a medium heat. Once hot, add the oil and then sliced potatoes, turn up the heat to high and cook on each side for 3–4 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and place on kitchen paper while assembling the salad.
To make the seaweed and lettuce salad, chop the cooled seaweed and place in a bowl, then add the chopped lettuce. Dress with the vinaigrette just before serving.
Serve the oysters on a large platter, with the sautéed potatoes and salad in separate bowls, family style, plus tartare sauce on the side.
