Oyster Pastries

Christall Lowe

Makes

12 regular or 24 mini

Ingredients

	2 tablespoons butter
	1 small onion, finely diced
	1½ tablespoons plain flour
	1 cup milk
	200g punnet shucked oysters, drained and diced
	salt and pepper
	12 regular or 24 mini vol-au-vent cases (store-bought)
	fresh chives or parsley, chopped, to garnish

COOK’S NOTE

The oyster mixture can be prepared a few hours in advance (just don’t fill the pastry until directly prior to cooking or it may go soggy). You can also use the creamy oyster sauce as a topping on toasted bread or crostini. Homemade pastry cases can be made with sheets of store-bought flaky pastry.

Oyster pastries, or ‘vol-au-vents’, were a staple treat on the party tables of the 1980s. I even had them at my eighth birthday – yes, at a kid’s party! These bite-sized morsels of deliciousness from the sea make good on the phrase ‘a little goes a long way’. You don’t need a lot of oyster to flavour the creamy, decadent sauce, and these can be made using store-bought vol-au-vent cases or puff pastry.

View the recipe collection here

Instructions

1.	Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
2.	Add the diced onion and cook for a few minutes, until soft but not browned.
3.	Add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until it forms a roux (one big soft lump), about 20 seconds.
4.	Add the milk a small portion at a time, ensuring you mix well between additions.
5.	The roux will gradually go from a thick paste to a smooth sauce as you add milk and mix, and the milk is absorbed gradually into it.
6.	Add the oysters and stir through until combined.
7.	Cook for 1 minute on a low heat until sauce is thick and creamy.
8.	Season with salt and pepper to taste.
9.	Preheat the oven to 180°C.
10.	Place the vol-au-vent cases on an oven tray and spoon tablespoons of the creamy oyster sauce into each.
11.	Bake in the oven for 6-8 minutes, or until the pastry is crisp and golden.
12.	Serve sprinkled with chopped chives or parsley.

This is an extract from Kai
Feast: Food stories and
recipes from the maunga
to the moana by Christall
Lowe. Photography Christall
Lowe, published by Bateman
Books Oct 2024, $59.99.