Individual Oyster Tarts Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• For the pastry: Roll the pastry to 1/4-inch thickness and cut into 6 (6-inch) rounds. Place the pastry in 6 (4-inch) tart molds. With a knife trim the excess pastry. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
• Line each tart shell with a piece of parchment paper and fill to the rim with pie weights.
• Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Remove the pie weights and parchment from the tart shells and bake for 10 minutes.
• For the filling: Whisk together the lemon juice, eggs, yolks, sugar, and vanilla extract.
• Pour the lemon mixture into a medium pot. Place over medium heat and stir with a spatula for about 5 minutes, until the mixture begins to thicken. Pour the lemon mixture onto a baking sheet and cool completely.
• Spoon the cooled lemon mixture or curd into the baked tart shells.
• For the meringue: Beat the egg whites with the vanilla extract and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Continue beating while adding the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time. The finished meringue should have stiff glossy peaks. Mound the meringue on top of the tarts.
• Make sure there is a good seal between the meringue and the edge of the crust. Bake the tarts in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the meringue is golden. Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from the molds.
• Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Using a cheese grater, grate the butter and shortening into the flour. Combine the mixture with your fingers until it resembles cornmeal. Add the ice cold water and mix with a spoon, pulling the water into the flour until a dough forms.
• With your hands, shape the dough into 2 balls and flatten them into disks. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days and in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Steps:

• Prepare the oysters: Season flour with salt and pepper. Dredge each oyster in the flour, then dip in the beaten egg, then coat evenly in the panko.
• Set breaded oysters on a baking cooling rack, leaving a little room between the oysters so they can dry and set. Refrigerate until ready to fry and serve.
• Make the sauce: Finely mince garlic with a pinch of salt until sticky and pasty. Mince shallots, cornichons and capers as finely as possible. Add all to a small bowl. Stir in mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, caper brine and cornichon vinegar, and stir well. Add chopped parsley, stir well and season to taste with salt. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
• Fry the oysters: Melt enough shortening in a deep medium skillet (we love cast iron) over medium for 1 1/2 inches of liquified fat once hot. Increase heat to medium-high. It's ready to fry in when a few crumbs of panko or the tip of a wooden chopstick sizzles actively in the fat.
• Add the oysters cold from the refrigerator, working in batches of 6 to 8 or as you have room. Fry, making sure to turn them to get both sides, until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes, depending on size. Remove with a slotted spoon or spider, and let rest on a clean rack while you fry the rest. Season each batch with a little salt while still piping hot, as soon as you pull them from the fat. Serve with tartar sauce.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set out two 6-ounce ramekins.
• Place puff pastry sheet on a work surface and let thaw for just 5 minutes; it should still be partially frozen and very firm. Use a round pastry cutter the same diameter as your ramekins to cut out 2 rounds of dough. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Prick each pastry round all over with a fork.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the pastries are puffed up and the bottoms are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and slide parchment paper off the baking pan onto a work surface; press warm pastries down lightly with the back of a fork to deflate them a bit. Let cool.
• Increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Mix brown sugar, white sugar, a pinch of cinnamon, and a very small pinch of salt together in a bowl.
• Use 1 1/2 teaspoons butter to generously grease the bottom and sides of each ramekin. Spoon the sugar mixture evenly into each ramekin, reserving about 1 1/2 teaspoons for later. Shake ramekins gently to settle and flatten the sugar mixture.
• Fill a bowl with 3 cups cold water. Add lemon juice.
• Turn one apple on its side; trim about 1/4 inch off the top and bottom of the apple, then cut it in half through the center. Repeat with the second apple.
• Peel around the apple halves to remove the peel; discard. Continue to peel the flesh, making ribbons as long and as thick as possible until you reach the core, letting the ribbons drop into the water. As long as your ribbons are 3- to 4-inches long, that's fine.
• Pull out 3 to 4 of the longest ribbons and line them up on a work surface into one long ribbon, overlapping the ends an inch or so. Roll the ribbon up tightly to form the center of the tart, then turn it up on its end. Coil more ribbons around the center, overlapping as you go, until you have a coil that's the same diameter as your ramekin. Pick up the apple coil and place it into the ramekin, with the flat side on top of the sugar. Repeat to make the second tart.
• Dot 1/2 teaspoon butter over each tart, then sprinkle with the remaining sugar mixture. Top each tart with a pastry round, placing the fork-poked side down on the apples.
• Bake in the preheated oven until pastries have browned and juices are bubbling, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and press the hot pastries down gently with a fork. Let cool for about 10 minutes.
• Run a knife around each pastry, then turn over onto serving plates. Use a spoon to go around each tart to separate the layers and create more definition, if desired.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400°F
• In a small saucepan, melt the butter over moderately high heat.
• Stir in the flour, then whisk in the milk & cream cheese, until smooth.
• Bring to a simmer, whisking.
• Stir in the onion, garlic powder and bay leaf and simmer over low heat, whisking, until no floury taste remains, 10 minutes.
• Pass through a coarse strainer set over a small bowl; discard the bay leaf, and add lemon juice.
• Stir in the horseradish and season with salt and pepper.
• Press a piece of plastic wrap onto the sauce.
• In a small bowl, combine the panko and cheese and stir in the olive oil.
• Arrange the phyllo shells on a rimmed baking sheet.
• Place an oyster in each shell.
• Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the horseradish sauce into each shell, and sprinkle the panko mixture on top.
• Bake in the upper third of the oven for about 10 minutes, until hot throughout and crisp on top.
• Serve right away.

Steps:

• Heat oil in a deep fryer to 350 degrees F. Alternatively, fill a large heavy pot almost halfway with oil and heat to 350 degrees F.
• Spread 1 tablespoon of pate on each piece of toast. In a shallow bowl, mix enough salt and pepper into the cornmeal to flavor it. Roll the oysters in cornmeal until well covered. Lightly shake off the excess.
• Carefully add breaded oysters to the hot oil and fry until crispy, about 30 to 40 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
• Put 6 fried oysters on top of each piece of toast, and then top the oysters with Colbert Sauce. Garnish with a sprinkle of chopped parsley. Serve immediately.
• In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, cook the sherry wine until reduced by half. Add hollandaise, followed by tomato sauce and Worcestershire. Add enough caramel food coloring until it becomes a deep chocolate shade. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve over fried oysters.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• On a floured surface, roll the pastry out a little thinner than 1/8-inch. Lay on a sheet pan and chill it, then cut out 4-inch disks. Cut decorative shapes from the scrap and bake them off to use later.
• Slice peeled, halved, and cored apples extremely thinly, preferably on a mandoline.
• In a small bowl, mix the cinnamon and sugar together.
• Lay pastry disks on a parchment lined sheet pan and place 1 cube of butter in the center on each puff pastry disk and a spoonful of cinnamon sugar. Start layering and stacking the apple slices in a concentric circle leaving very little edge showing to make a beehive shape (save the smaller slices for the top layers). It should get smaller as you go up higher.
• When finished, the stack of apple layers should be about 3 inches high. Place a cube of butter at the top and sprinkle the apple stack liberally with cinnamon sugar. You can freeze them at this point. Bake until golden brown and tender, about 30 minutes.