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Prep Time20 minutes
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Cook Time1 hour
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Serving2
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On May 1, 1967, at 9:00 a.m., Elvis and Priscilla got married at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. After the 8 minute ceremony in which the word, “obey,” was omitted at Elvis’s request, the couple hosted a lavish buffet for 100 of their closest friends. Roasted pig, lobster, fried chicken and Oysters Rockefeller were served. Then the couple flew to Palm Springs in Frank Sinatra’s plane and honeymooned in a gorgeous mid-century hideaway.
Elvis was famous for his appetite and so it didn’t surprise me that he loved these oysters enough to have them on his wedding day menu. Oysters Rockefeller at Antoine’s is my favorite dish at my favorite restaurant, and over the years, I have eaten that dish with all my favorite people. I love, love, love Oysters Rockefeller. But Oysters Rockefeller is unique to Antoine’s and it CANNOT be duplicated. The proprietors at that venerable restaurant have never given out the recipe. I would pay dearly for the secret but even the waiters are mum when you try to tease it out of them. The “secret” seems to be the combination of greens, must assuredly including tarragon and definitely not spinach. At any rate, when I decided to honor Elvis by re-creating a part of his and Priscilla’s wedding menu, I knew I could not produce an authentic Rockefeller dressing. But I came close with a recipe I adapted from Saveur magazine. I do not present these as Oysters Rockefeller because that would be sacrilege, pretentious and false advertising. I’m calling them Oysters Aladdin in homage to Elvis and Priscilla. By the way, they welcomed their daughter nine months after the wedding, and divorced in 1973. Good times don’t always last… but that doesn’t mean those times weren’t great while they lasted.
UPDATE: JULY 16, 2022. I tweaked this recipe after having lunch at Antoine’s and tasting a LOT of Oysters Rockefeller. I realized that I needed a base of buttery sauteed onions and garlic to give this luscious green sauce the impact it needed. It’s reminiscent of Escargots A La Bourguignonne which makes sense if you have ever flipped through the Antoine’s cookbook. I really do think I have the “right” five greens for this recipe, and this rendition was a big success. We’ll never know exactly how Antoine’s makes its Oysters Rockefeller, but I was really happy with this week’s rendition.
UPDATE: MARCH 16, 2025: I added a teaspoon of Pernod, and it was perfect.
UPDATE: May 24, 2025: I think I used a bit too much butter, but the results of this recipe were still delicious… in fact, this might have been the best rendition yet. Use 1/4 cup butter (half a stick) for the roux, then add the other half-stick as you cook the greens down. If you need to add some more softened butter as you puree the greens, do it then. Play it by ear, but you really don’t need much more than one whole stick of butter for this amount of oysters. The recipe makes 8 oysters with plenty of green dressing for each shell.
UPDATE: NOVEMBER 2025: Be sure to use enough bread crumbs. Use the immersion blender to get the proper puree. Use the Wilton piping bag with the pink star tip. The addition of a little fennel in the greens mixture is delicious. I used 1 TBS. of Pernod, and the amount of lemon juice was 3 wedges of a lemon, squeezed. I have a new oven so I broiled at 550 degrees for 12 minutes but watch this! The topping goes from bright green to almost black when cooked properly.
- Oysters with toast.
- OYSTERS ALADDAN
Ingredients
Oysters Aladdin
Directions
It's the tarragon that gives this oyster dressing a licorice type flavor. Take your time cooking the greens down because they need to be mushy enough to turn into a puree that you can pipe over the oysters before you broil them. Double this recipe if you're hostessing a party!
Melt 1/4 cup butter over medium heat. Saute onions and garlic.
Stir in the flour and make a blonde roux. This will become a thick paste quickly.
Add the greens, and start cooking to a soft "mushy" texture. Total cooking time is about an hour over low heat.
Add the butter as you go along to keep the mixture moist. The total butter I used in this recipe was one stick. But save a few TBS. of softened butter to add when you puree the mixture. Add the oyster liqueur if the mixture gets too dry. Cook over very low heat for about an hour.
Add the PERNOD. Add salt to taste. Toward the end of the cooking time, add the lemon juice to taste.
Add the parmesan cheese. Keep tasting the mixture. You want a rich buttery, herby anise scented flavor. Let it cool.
Stir in the bread crumbs.
Put the greens and crumbs in a food processor and puree. Use the immersion blender if necessary.
When you have a good puree, put the mixture in a piping bag (I used a Wilton disposable one with an attached pink star tip that I got from Party Store).
If you didn't shuck fresh oysters, use ceramic oyster shells and arrange them on a baking sheet. Place one or two oysters in each shell. Then, pipe the green puree onto the oysters in a circular pattern.
Broil until the green dressing gets a slightly brownish tint and the oysters are bubbling. This was about 12 minutes under my broiler on HI. But, I have found that everybody's broiler is a little different. Don't walk away and don't start a phone conversation with your mother. Watch this. You have to get the texture of the dressing just right. I like the slightest bit of "crust," for lack of a better explanation. The bright green greens go a little dark... that's perfect.
Very important: Serve with a lemon wedge. That squirt of citrus is essential!
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