Taste le Tour with Gabriel Gate S07 2011 ep127 Poached Oysters with Potatoes and a Chive Sauce
Channel: Peter J Warren
Date: 10/07/2020

Bonjour it is from the Atlantic coast in the Vendée region that I welcome you to Taste Le Tour 2011.
I am Gabriel Gaté.
In the next three weeks I will take you to all the different regions of this year’s Tour de France,
and together we will discover the local gastronomic specialities.
Today we start our special journey from the stunning island of Noirmoutier, famous for its new season potatoes that are still harvested by hand and available early in the spring.
The island is known as a seafood paradise.  It is surrounded by oyster beds producing some of the finest oysters in France.
In this part of the Atlantic coast the seabed is very flat and the tides retreat a very long way.
Magically twice a day the low tide opens the Passage du Gois, which is the road pass between the mainland and the island of Noirmoutier.
It is a family tradition for the locals to come and collect seafood from the soil - some cockles, pippies or whatever they can find.
When the weather is good, small groups of seafood lovers
gather on the side of the road where the Tour is starting this year to harvest the freshest and cheapest of meals from the seabed.
But to me the gastronomic highlight is the high quality of the fish and seafood caught just around the island, like sole, sea bass, turbot and even some unbelievable lobster.
It’s really a fisherman’s paradise.
Merci Hervé
Now I have rarely seen in my life as a chef, fish of such high quality - because they have been caught a few hours ago by line, they have not been damaged by the nets.
They are firm, the eyes are shiny  In a few hours these two pink snapper will be on the table of the top restaurants.
Huîtres Pochées Sauce Ciboulette en Pommes de Terre
Poached Oysters with Potatoes and a Chive Sauce
Any celebration in the Vendée region almost always starts with oysters and this dish of poached oysters  with new potatoes and a chive sauce is really delicate.
 ‘Like all the boys of my generation, I learned to open oysters as a teenager.’  
The new baby potatoes are boiled in the skin.
Then chopped shallots are gently cooked in butter.
One tablespoon of white wine vinegar and two tablespoons of dry white wine are added with black pepper, and this concoction is simmered until evaporated.
A little cream is stirred in and on low heat forty grams of butter is whisked in until creamy. Voilà for the sauce.
The oysters are poached in dry white wine without boiling for about twenty seconds.
I like to scoop out about one teaspoon of potato flesh from the centre of each potato half.  
The oysters are dropped into the sauce and sprinkled with chives.  
Each oyster is placed carefully with a little sauce on each potato half  and it is served with a few green leaves or herbs.
It’s incredibly delicious!
The Vendée region is very tranquil and tomorrow we find out how one of the most important ingredients in French cuisine has been cultivated right in this region for twelve hundred years.