Do you ever feel like an oyster? Raw. Shell clamped tight. Knowing there's a pearl inside. Only to find out you're not the pearl-producing type of oyster but the one that gets eaten. Oysters
Oysters got their aphrodisiac reputation from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love who unwittingly sprang forth from the sea on a convenient oyster shell and then in the same breath gave birth to Eros, according to this link. And if you believe that, you can have faith in their aphrodisiac powers too.

Oysters with the thickest shells have the most juice. Before shucking, make sure they're alive. It's ok if they're sleeping. Just tap them and discard any that do not close firmly. They're dead and not worth getting food poisoning from.

I was amazed at how tight the oyster shell was clamped shut. I worked from the hinge at the back to pry it open, and even then I chipped off pieces of the shell in the process. Some were easier to open than others, and with each shell opened, I felt more powerful and confident. Now I don't have to go to an oyster bar and pay premium prices for someone else to shuck me some plain ol' oysters. I can do it myself and make a fancy-shmancy sabayon to go with it.

After you've figured out the shucking part, it's onto the poaching. Simple. They're just poached in their own juices until the liquid boils. Then they wait on the sidelines while you make the star of the dish: the sabayon.

Spinach
But first there's the spinach to steam. I found the spinach to be the perfect foil to the rich sabayon and oyster. It acted as the go-between, diplomatically keeping the oyster and sabayon from being the dueling divas.

Sabayon
Sabayon means "wine-foam cream". It is zabaglione without the sugar and with the use of Muscadet instead of sweet Marsala, changing it from a fancy dessert into a rich, savory sauce.

The base of the sabayon is a shallot/wine reduction. Cook the shallots in butter until translucent. Add the wine and oyster juices to round out the sauce. A bit of reduction builds flavor and then add the crème fraîche for tang, richness and viscosity. Again, the sauce is reduced to build flavor.
While the sauce reduces, whisk the yolks and water into a foamy frenzy. Then, while they're distracted, set them over a bowl of simmering water. Gently cook the eggs until the mixture becomes thick and creamy and increases in volume. This is probably the hardest part of the recipe. If it gets too hot, you'll have scrambled sabayon. Not so sexy.

After you've cooked this sauce to its ribbon-y texture, whisk in the clarified butter slowly. The sabayon and the butter should be at the same temperature, which is the key to a successful sabayon. Finally, add the reduced shallot/wine mixture. Lots of eggs, butter, and crème fraîche make this a very rich, sensual sauce.

Spinach, again
Back to the spinach. It's sautéed in even more butter and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Finally, assemble and serve.

Recipe: Huîtres Chaudes au Muscadet (Poached Oysters with Muscadet Sabayon Sauce)

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

You can find the recipe for Huîtres Chaudes au Muscadet (Poached Oysters with Muscadet Sabayon Sauce) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link). To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Serve with Muscadet, Chablis, or Champagne, or even red wine.

Tasting Notes
I've had oysters before, but usually they just came with a squeeze of lemon. This was decadent. I wouldn't want to eat more than an appetizer-sized serving, but they were the best-tasting oysters I've ever had. I even shucked a few more oysters the next day and re-heated the sauce. After the sabayon broke in the microwave, I stirred in some cold sabayon and it emulsified again and I had a perfect lunch. Next Class
• Aubergines Bayildi (Gratin of Stuffed Eggplant) pages 255-256

Links
• Thomas Keller's signature dish "Oysters and Pearls"
• Red wine with oysters: A Rule Just Waiting to Be Broken
• cookthink: How To Choose Oysters

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $1,262.59 + $17.99 (oysters) + $6.60 (sabayon) = $1,287.18
($8.20 per serving)

Butter used so far: 11 pounds, 25.5 tablespoons

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Homemade chocolate pudding spooned onto a chocolate cookie crust with a dollop of whipped cream. My kids were in heaven. As were our neighbor's kids. One of mine licked off just the pudding and whipped cream and handed the cookie part back to me to finish!

I was at a popular dessert spot in Ottawa the other day called Memories. Situated downtown in the bustling Byward Market, it's a dessert-focused café I've been visiting since moving to Ottawa. At one time, all the desserts were listed on a big whiteboard tempting us with cheesecakes, chocolate oblivions, and pies. I had my first ever café au lait there served in a bowl. I awkwardly figured out the best way to hold the bowl without burning my fingers and tried to confidently display l'air de Paris without spilling any coffee down my chin.

As I was looking over the dessert menu at Memories this weekend, nothing was tempting me. On a menu, I'm always looking for the banana foster, molten chocolate cakes, toffee pudding, bread pudding or even floating islands! I like to eat something I don't make at home, or at least something I don't make often. Now that I'm baking so much, it's getting more difficult to enjoy a dessert at a café.

I liked what I ordered at Memories, which was a thin meringue on top of a lemon tart on top of an almond cake on top of a crust with a raspberry swirl. I'm just getting spoiled, and rounder in the process.

Recipe: Chocolate Cream Tart

Makes: 8 servings (I halved the recipe.)

Ingredients:

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Cheesecake is a simple dessert to whip up. You just dump and stir all the ingredients. The trick is in the baking. Avoiding that dreaded crack or sinking hole in the middle is tough.

I flavored my cheesecake with orange and ginger. On a recent shopping trip, I found a store in Ottawa (Grace in the Kitchen) that carries spices from Montreal's Philippe de Vienne’s line of épices de cru (small-production "estate" spices). I was lingering over all the tins of spices displayed on their shelves, trying to find cinnamon. When I asked about the spices, the seller excitedly started telling me about Philippe de Vienne and his wife Ethné who travel the world searching for the best spices to bring back and package for the rest of us. He opened several sample tins for me to sniff. It was a veritable scent spa. From Mexican oregano to dried lavender, de Vienne carries many common spices and several rare ones. It was hard to choose. Since ginger is one of my favorite spices, I picked up a tin hand-picked from China and found cannelle de Ceylan as well.

On another trip to Grace in the Kitchen, I purchased de Vienne's Ras el Hanout, meaning "head of the shop" in Arabic, and refers to a mixture of the best spices a seller has to offer. You'll have to check back to see what I do with this exotic blend of spices.

I also couldn't resist a little box of 12 spices cleverly packaged in a pretty box labeled Cuisine 101 with the following welcome on it: I am definitely enchanted!

To see the different versions of cheesecakes cropping up all over the foodblogosphere, check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll.

Recipe: Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake with Orange and Ginger and a Homemade Graham Cracker Cookie Crust

Makes: 1 8- or 9-inch springform pan (I halved all the recipes, and it made 9 minis.)

• Graham Cracker Cookies from Happy in the Kitchen: The Craft of Cooking The Art of Eating (affiliate link) by Michel Richard

• Orange Ginger Sauce adapted from Happy in the Kitchen: The Craft of Cooking The Art of Eating (affiliate link) by Michel Richard

Ingredients:

Instructions:

To make the graham cracker cookies:
In a food processor, grind the graham crackers, almond meal, hazelnut meal and pistachios.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Fold in the graham cracker mixture.

Form the dough into a log and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 1 hour until it is firm.

Preheat oven to 350°F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Cut the dough into slices about ¼-inch thick. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch between each cookie since they spread while baking. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until crisp and golden.

While they are still warm, use a cookie cutter to cut them to a specified size. Let cool.

To make the cheesecake:
Preheat oven to 350°F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

Pour batter into prepared crust (if you're using a traditional graham cracker crust) and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done. This can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Tip: Use a disposable foil pan that is 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

I used a mini cheesecake pan to make individual cheesecakes. I didn't use a water bath and baked them for 25 minutes. Then, I turned the oven off and let them cool for 45 minutes in the oven. No cracks, but I had some sinking problems.

To make the sauce:
Combine the sugar, lemon and 2 tablespoons water. Cook over medium heat until the sugar caramelizes and the mixture turns an amber color. Carefully pour in the orange juice. Add the stem ginger and ground ginger. Add more orange juice, if needed, to thin the sauce.

Tasting Notes
The strong, spicy ginger in the cheesecake and sauce was perfect with the homemade graham cracker cookies. The hint of orange in both the sauce and the cheesecake cut the sweetness of the cheesecake. And the individual small cheesecakes were a perfect portion for this rich, decadent dessert.

Link
• Interview with Philippe de Vienne

I love mussels and have enjoyed more than one all-you-can-eat mussel bar. They're easy to prepare and only need a good sauce to transcend them from bland to spectacular. This Mouclade with its simple herbal sauce thickened with crème fraîche does just that. But, you must use crème fraîche, the secret ingredient.

More common Mouclade recipes contain curry, and this idea is scribbled in the margin of my cookbook for next time. Mouclade is a specialty dish from the Poitou-Charentes and Bordeaux regions in France. The mussels are steamed in a bath of butter, onions, shallots, and wine. After straining the sauce and setting the mussels aside, the sauce is reduced a bit. Then crème fraîche is added along with a sprinkle of thyme. Just like that, you have a one-pot meal that you could easily serve at a fancy dinner party.

Recipe: Mouclade (Mussels with Wine and Cream Sauce)

Serves: 6

You can find the recipe for Mouclade (Mussels with Wine and Cream Sauce) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link). To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Serve with Muscadet.

Tasting Notes
Pull out the mussel with a fork or an empty mussel shell. Scoop up as much sauce as the mussel will hold. Taste. Repeat. Finish the remaining sauce in your bowl with a fresh slice of baguette. Lick your fingers. Help yourself to another bowl.

Next Class
• Huîtres Chaudes au Muscadet (Poached Oysters with Muscadet Sabayon Sauce) pages 383-384

Links
• Billy Bi (Mussel Soup)
• Video: Mussels Provencal (Steamed Mussels in a White Wine Sauce)
• Times Online: Mouclade
• Bitten: The Mussel Challenge

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Running total: $1,244.26 + $18.33 = $1,262.59
($3.05 per serving)

Butter used so far: 11 pounds, 14.5 tablespoons

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This chocolate bread pudding could be renamed "Susan Boyle" pudding in honor of her amazing talent. If you haven't seen the video yet, check it out and come on back. Last I looked, 34 million plus people had viewed it, and it still gives me shivers every time I watch it.

Like Susan Boyle, this pudding is an old-fashioned dessert that "transcends its homey origins." I love the custard-y, delicately flavored middle with a tinge of crustiness on the outside in each bite. Since my favorite bread pudding is plain old vanilla, I divided my recipe in half and added the chocolate to one pan and vanilla to the other.

The pudding is baked in a water bath to avoid the custard from curdling or drying out. Next time, I want to try making this pudding with a more interesting bread, like brioche.

Recipe: Four-Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

Makes: 12 servings

Ingredients:

Before I set out to work through Le Cordon Bleu's cooking school curriculum, I would buy a box of frozen patty shells, or vol-au-vent, to make fancy appetizers for a special dinner. Now, I'm making puff pastry at home and finding satisfaction in seeing all those layers in something I created from flour, water and butter. Although my home versions aren't hexagonal and have a bit of a rustic look, they don't have the hydrogenated soybean and palm oils that are in the store-bought version either.

I haven't made puff pastry very often…actually only twice before. The technique came back to me as I worked with it, but I still need some practice to avoid the butter seeping through the layers. It really didn't take that much hands-on time either. In-between, while it rested in the refrigerator, I had enough time to check on Twitter, email and catch up a bit on reading blogs.

This almond-y chocolate treat claims to be ready for the oven in 15 minutes. I tested this assertion and set my timer (after getting the ingredients prepped and taking the required mise en place photos, of course).

Because I baked individual tortes, they were ready after only 15 minutes in the oven.

A little while ago, I took a foodie field trip downtown to one of my favorite kitchen stores in Ottawa called Domus where I found the individual paper liners that I used for these mini tortes at Domus and am looking forward to trying the vanilla paste.

Recipe: Chocolate Amaretti Torte

Makes: 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 or 2 amaretti or amarettini, crumbled, or a few spoonfuls of toasted sliced almonds, for decoration

Recently I've been updating my photo index. Here are 20 of my favorites:

1. Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins baked in cookie cutters
2. Blueberry Crumb Cake baked in an espresso cup
3. Caramel-Topped Flan baked in a sunflower pan
4. Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler baked in a flower pot
5. Chocolate Éclairs baked in a Kransekake pan
6. Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes baked in a rubber glove
7. Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters baked in coin wrappers
8. Dimply Plum Cake baked in passion fruit shells
9. French Chocolate Brownies baked in a popsicle pan
10. French Onion Soup served in half an onion
11. Gingerbread Cookie Cups baked in silicon shot glasses
12. Gooey Chocolate Cake baked in a pyramid
13. Granola Grabbers baked in ice cream cups
14. Lenox Almond Biscotti baked in coin wrappers
15. Passion Fruit and Orange Cupcakes baked in orange shells
16. Poached White and Red Pear
17. Pumpkin Chai Tart baked in a canning jar lid
18. Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins baked in a madeleine pan
19. Sugar Pie baked in a canning jar
20. Wacky {Cup}Cakes baked in cookie cutters
Click through and let me know which one is your favorite.

Just make this salad, which is a potluck favorite. You don't want to know why it's so delicious. In fact, you may not want to make it after finding out. But if you survived your college days with ramen (pronounced "rah-men") instant noodle soup, having raw vegetables with it will be a big improvement.

I brought this salad to a friend's house last week for dinner, and everyone had seconds and asked for the recipe, which is exactly what I did the first time I had this salad at a potluck.

We ate ramen instant noodle soup many times while growing up. After a busy work day, mom or dad would boil some water, throw in the noodles, and three minutes later supper was ready, sometimes with a poached egg or peanut butter toast to round out the meal.

This salad is a show stopper because it's sweet, salty, sour, bitter and even has umami from the instant ramen noodles and texture from the nuts, seeds and raw vegetables. Just don't remind people that instant noodle soup's first three ingredients are salt, MSG and sugar. Potlucks are meant to be fun and salads are supposed to be healthy.

Recipe: Ramen Ichiban Cabbage Salad

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

I grew up singing this nursery rhyme and skipping to "Blue bells, cockle shell; Easy ivy over" and never thought twice about the word "cockle", except to giggle a little. Coquille is French for "shell" and Coquille Saint Jacques is the name for "scallop shell" named after St. James. This week we're making Coquilles Saint Jacques Dieppoise.

Scallop Shells and the Camino of Santiago de Compostela
The scallop shell plays an important part on the Camino of Santiago de Compostela, a Christian pilgrimage to St. James' burial spot at Santiago de Compostela. The cockle shell is St. James's emblem, and you can read the history about it in this article. A friend walked the Camino a couple of years ago, and here are her thoughts on the scallop shell: Each line on the scallop shell represents the age of the scallop. As the bivalve gets older, it adds another layer to its outer shell, like the rings on a tree. When you walk the Camino, many stamps that you get for your Pilgrim's passport show a scallop shell too.

Cooking Scallops
When cooking scallops, it's better if they are slightly underdone since they can become rubbery when overcooked. I rarely order scallops when I'm out because I don't like the texture when they're overcooked. However, by cooking my scallops at home, I was able to cook them until they were just cooked through. My fork easily sliced into it, like soft butter, and it tasted like smooth custard.

Crème fraîche, Mussels, Shrimp and Mushrooms
On a foodie field trip last week, I did a crème fraîche happy dance. I've been looking for this hard-to-find ingredient since last year. I guess I just didn't know where to look. Although I've made my own, I wanted to compare it to store-bought (which I still have to do before the April 17 expiry date). I found crème fraîche at Nicastro's in the Ottawa Byward market. The crème fraîche adds a tanginess that would be missed in the sauce, so make your own or find it at your grocery store, if you can. (Nicastro's also has the best cannoli.)

My mussels are from Prince Edward Island and my shrimp flew in from China via Farm Boy and were on sale for $3.99 for 454 gram bag. My scallops are from Maine, so my meal was multi-national!

I visited another favorite food store in Ottawa last week called the Byward Fruit Market. They always have interesting fruit (and will even have cherimoya in a few weeks). I bought some fresh morel mushrooms to include in this dish.

Sauce
A la dieppoise means "sea fish garnished with crayfish tails and mussels, served with a white wine sauce". This dish can be made in one large sauté pan. After cooking each item, remove it with a slotted spoon and set aside. With each item that's cooked, the liquid builds more flavor.

Recipe: Coquilles Saint Jacques Dieppoise (Scallops with Mussels and Shrimp in Cream Sauce)

Serves: 6 (I halved the recipe.)

Ingredients:

You can find the recipe for Coquilles Saint Jacques Dieppoise (Scallops with Mussels and Shrimp in Cream Sauce) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link). To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Serve with a glass of a fruity Muscadet de Sevres et Maine, produced in the Loire area, or with a fresh Riesling from Alsace.

Tasting Notes
Through the grapevine, I had heard from other members in Whisk Wednesdays that they found this dish bland so I wasn't expecting to really like it. I was surprised and found the sauce to be rich and flavorful. I did add a splash more wine and bit of heavy cream so that I would have enough sauce for my meal. The crème fraîche was a key ingredient. Although the recipe lists heavy cream as a substitute, I would use sour cream if I didn't have crème fraîche. I'm also a sucker for anything with mushrooms, so this meal didn't disappoint at all.

This is a simple but tasty dish that will wow guests who love seafood. Plus it's economical. Serve with a crusty loaf of bread to soak up any remaining sauce on your plate.

To me, cream pies are synonymous with the pies you get at Denny's or Perkin's. The ones that sit for days on end in their smudged display cases waiting for senior's day at the diner. I honestly don't think I've ever had homemade banana cream pie before this week. Dorie's cinnamon-spiced pastry cream that enrobes the banana slices is creamy and velvety before hitting the crunch from the crust.

Instead of a pastry crust, I made a crumb crust using some leftover Coconut Butter Thins from last week by pulsing them in the food processor with some melted butter. I baked the crust at 350˚F for about 10 minutes. I also tried baking the crust in a parfait glass, and that worked too.

I had some sweet Ataulfo mangoes that I had picked up at Costco and decided to try making one mini pie crust with this "champagne" of fruit instead of bananas. It turned out to be a favorite. I also used up some frozen egg yolks I had stored in the freezer.

Recipe: Banana Cream Pie

Makes: 8 servings

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons sour cream