Recipe: The World is My Oyster

In my last post I described how eating an oyster is like eating a bit of the ocean.  My mom always tells me that the world is my oyster, a saying that means that I can accomplish anything that I set out to in life. I thought it'd be cool to come up with a recipe with that theme.  Here's a way to "dress-up" your oysters with ingredients that represent different elements (earth, air, water and fire).  Hope you enjoy it! :-)

Ingredients:

Oysters
Cilantro
Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
Hot Sauce (optional)
Lecithin

Step 1, Earth and Fire Vinagrette:

The Earth Element is represented by Cilantro, which I chopped away until it looked like cut grass:

My knives are very sharp, so I use a protective glove.

Then, I squeeze lemon juice into the cilantro:

 I squeeze it through my fingers so that I can catch any pits and keep them out of my food!

Next, comes the Fire!  Hot Sauce!

Stir it all together and set aside.

Step Two:  Lemon Sunshine Air

The Air element is represented by lemon foam.  I got the idea for making foam from Molecular Gastronomy, a new way of cooking that combines culinary skills and science.  This was my first shot at it, so it's not the best, but I'm going to keep on experimenting.

This is my concoction of lemon juice and lecithin.

Lecithin is an emulsifier (this one is from soy).  Basically, it allows the foam to keep its shape.  I whisked it with a hand mixer until it created a foam.

Step Three:  Put it all together

My mom shucked the oysters (that's a hard job involving sharp knives so an adult must do that) and set them on ice.  Then I garnished each oyster with the vinagrette and topped it all off with the lemon foam.  This is how it came out:

Delicious!

My name's Xavier Medina, I'm 12 years old and the world is my oyster.

P.s. What do you call a snail on a ship?  A snailor.