6 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup shallots (chopped fine)
1/4 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp flour
14 oz chicken broth (more or less won't h, urt)
4 cup oysters, drained, reserve liquid (less, to
14 oz artichoke hearts, cooked
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp tabasco
1/2 cup whipping cream
3 tbsp parsley (chopped, fresh)
Directions
In a 3-quart casserole, melt butter and saute shallots. When shallots
are translucent, add thyme, bay leaf and cayenne pepper. Add flour
and whisk well. Add broth, oyster water, artichoke hearts, salt and
tabasco. Bring to a boil. Add oysters and parsley. Simmer on medium,
partly covered, for exactly 5 minutes. Add whipped cream and serve
immediately.
NOTES:
* Chicken broth with artichokes and poached oysters ~- This is a
modern cajun-style recipe that I adapted from a local
convenience-food cookbook by Jean Durkee. It's an intriguing
combination of modern American ingredients with traditional cajun
flavorings.
* Fresh parsley tastes much better than dried parsley. If the
oysters are bigger than a small bite-size, cut them up before adding
them to the soup. Use the smallest oysters you can find.
* When I'm not making a double recipe, I usually dump the entire
(about 1-cup) container of whipping cream into the soup, even though
that's double what the recipe calls form.
* The timing on cooking the oysters is fairly critical. If you
overcook them, they will be rubbery.
: Difficulty: easy.
: Time: 20 minutes.
: Precision: measure the spices.
: Deborah Pedersen
: Microelectronics Computer Corporation, Austin TX
: pedersen@mcchi2.ARPA
: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
Servings: 6 servings
Artichoke Oyster Soup Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Cajun; Fish; Seafood; Soup; Vegetable
The History of Recipes
It is quite possible to prove the history of written cooking instructions far back into history, at least as far as early Egypt, and quite possibly further than that. However, generally, these old records were just basic hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for meal preparation.
In fact, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to Professor Solomon Katz, are a few clay tablets in Sumerian which show the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made anyone who drank it feel blissful. Later on, we find two interesting books which appeared in the fourteenth century ; one book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another named `Curye on Inglish`. Perhaps surprisingly, these books are not about the indian curry that we all know today, but rather accounts of the types of food on the menus of the rich and powerful. Later on in the 1400s, people returning from the crusades brought back many foods and herbs from middle-east cuisine, including spices like parsley and basil. These new foods and spices caused an increase in books on cookery, most of which still exist in private cookery archives. For the centuries that followed, the powerful and rich houses competed with each other to serve up the most extravagent meals, and because of this the best chefs and their recipe collections were greatly in demand. Nevertheless, it wasn`t until the nineteenth century that fine cooking and recipe books really came of age. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the USA, dedicated the best years of their lives to assembling, testing, and publishing recipes to allow everyone to enjoy them. By the advent of the twentieth century, cook books were in high demand, mostly as a result of higher levels of literacy, people having increased spare time and being a little richer. The introduction of the TV gave us cooking programs and the demand for the accompanying recipe books. And that brings us to the present day and the invention of the internet, permitting us all to search through massive numbers of recipes just like those on this site. |
We hope you enjoy this Artichoke Oyster Soup recipe.
