© Konrad Limbeck Foodstylist Benjamin Willke

Beef and Oyster

Clare Smyth, the UK's first three-star chef, conjures up a culinary highlight for us, combining beef and oysters.

Clare Smyth

Wagyu Beef

Ingredients (4 servings)
600 g roast lung of Wagyū beef
  • Remove the fat and tendons, set aside the fat.
  • Cut the meat into 100 g pieces. Use the leftover meat for the sauce.
  • Freeze a portion of meat, then cut into thin slices for the oyster wrap.
  • Salt both sides of the beef and grill on a small barbecue with hot charcoal until both sides are caramelized (core temperature: 50 °C), then keep warm.

Beef and Oyster Consommé

Ingredients (4 servings)
1 kg meat trimmings from Wagyū beef, diced
100 g Wagyū beef fat
150 g onions, finely chopped
150 g carrots, finely chopped
300 g mushrooms, finely sliced
7 g garlic
25 g shallots
150 g Guinness beer
80 g shiitake, grilled
7 g shiitake, dried
30 g Bovril beef extract
10 g soy sauce
30 g oyster juice
  • Melt the beef fat in a pan over a medium heat. Add the diced meat and brown. Then remove from the pan and set aside
  • Add the onions and caramelize lightly. Add the carrots, mushrooms, garlic and shallots and simmer for a further five minutes.
  • Add the Guinness, grilled and dried shiitake and the browned beef. Bring everything to the boil and simmer for two hours.
  • Strain the finished stock through a fine sieve and leave to cool quickly in a deep bowl.
  • Remove the fat from the surface and reduce the stock by half in the oven. Then strain the stock through cheesecloth.
  • Mix 500 g of the stock, the Bovril Beef Extract, soy sauce and oyster juice in a pan and reduce by half, season if necessary.

Braised Beef

Ingredients (4 servings)
1 piece(s) of beef wadjunken
4 l beef stock
  • Heat the pan. Season the wadjunken with salt and pepper.
  • Sear the meat on all sides until it caramelizes, remove from the pan and set aside to cool.
  • Deglaze the pan with red wine, add the beef stock and reduce by half. Then pour the stock out of the pan and leave to cool.
  • Place the wadjunken, reduced stock, carrot, onion and celery stalk in a vacuum bag, seal under full pressure and cook in a bain-marie at 85 °C for 24 hours.
  • Remove from the water bath, leave to cool and press between two trays for at least 12 hours.

Beef and Oyster Ragout

Ingredients (4 servings)
250 ml Guinness beer
100 ml red wine
2 l beef stock
200 g braised beef
100 g Wagyū beef tongue
100 g carrots, cooked and diced
100 g porcini mushrooms, diced and sautéed
100 g celery, cooked and diced
100 g candied shallots
3 oysters incl. oyster juice
  • Reduce the cooking liquid from the braised beef with the Guinness, wine and beef stock in a pan until a glazed consistency is achieved.
  • Cut the beef and tongue into one centimeter cubes. Mix with the rest of the vegetables and mix everything with the glaze, season and store in the fridge.
  • Set the oysters aside for serving.

Poached Oysters

Ingredients (4 servings)
6 oysters
  • Prepare a water bath at 62 °C.
  • Wrap the oysters in baking paper, place in a sous vide bag and cook in the water bath for 50 minutes.
  • Remove from the water bath and cool in ice water. Open the oysters and keep the juice and shell.

Oyster Emulsion

Ingredients (4 servings)
4 oysters incl. oyster juice
a little lemon juice
150 g vegetable oil
  • Open the oysters and keep the juice.
  • Mix the oysters with half their juice and lemon juice and slowly add the oil.
  • Once the emulsion is thick and creamy, season with salt. For a better texture, add a little more oyster juice if necessary.
  • Store in the fridge for a maximum of 24 hours.

Oyster Crackers

Ingredients (4 servings)
100 g oysters
350 g oyster liqueur
150 g tapioca flour
3 g silver powder
some fried sea lettuce
  • Finely blend the oysters and oyster liqueur in the Thermomix and season with salt.
  • Add the tapioca flour and silver powder and mix in the Thermomix at 90 °C for 30 minutes.
  • Spread on silicone mats and leave to dry for 20 minutes at 70 °C.
  • Fry the dried oyster crackers until they pop open. Flatten, cut into an oyster shape and sprinkle with fried sea lettuce.

Oyster Sauce

Ingredients (4 servings)
5 l fish stock
1 bottle of Noilly Prat
6 shallots, cut into slices
2 l double cream
oyster juice
a little lemon juice
  • Reduce the fish stock by a quarter in a pan.
  • Bring the shallots and Noilly Prat to the boil in a pan and add to the stock. Add the heavy cream and reduce by half. Remove from the heat and season with the juices.
  • Pass through a sieve, pour into a whipping siphon and store in a bain-marie at 60 °C.

For serving

Ingredients (4 servings)
12 oyster leaves, small
8 oyster leaves, large
coastal herbs, selection
oyster juice
a little vinegar
some Guinness beer
oyster shells
  • Heat the ragout and finalize with oyster juice, vinegar and Guinness, pour into oyster shells. Add the coastal herbs and finely diced oysters. Place an oyster cracker on top.
  • Cut the braised beef into squares.
  • Wrap a thin slice of Wagyū around the poached oyster and place on top of the beef.
  • Blanch the large and small oyster leaves and place on the beef in the same way.
  • Heat the beef and oyster consommé and pour into a glass. Pour the oyster sauce over the beef sauce to imitate the Guinness foam.
  • Place some oyster emulsion in dots on the plate next to the beef and finish with a dot of beef sauce in the middle.

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Clare Smyth
Chef
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