An 18th Century recipe revisited.

Choose some fleshy and slightly milky oysters. Remove the meat from the oyster shells and keep the water aside. Bring the filtered water to the boil with some spices and herbs. Blanch the oysters.

Prepare a donut or a tempura dough. Dip in the oysters and then deep-fry. Serve the oyster doughnuts with a beurre blanc or simply drizzle them with some lemon or grapefruit juice mixed with some chilli powder.

Provide 5 oysters per person. A glass of La Cigaralle, the white wine of Cayx, served well chilled, will work wonders with this refined starter.