Matt Stone & Ben Ing’s Grilled Akoya with Mushrooms and Truffle Jus

Method

Skewers

1. Fill large pot with water for blanching the Akoya in a 1 per cent salt solution and bring to a rolling boil. For example, if you have 2L of water you will need 20g of salt.
2. Blanch the Akoya, in the shell, for 35 seconds in the prepared pot, and refresh in ice water to completely stop the cooking process. This will allow you to handle and skewer the Akoya better.
3. Shuck the Akoya with an offset pallet knife taking care not to puncture the flesh and remove the beards from the Akoya. Reserve the shucked meat on ice until ready to skewer.
4. Using a turning knife, separate the large cap of the oyster mushroom from the end of the root, making sure there is some stem for the skewer. Reserve the bases of the oyster mushrooms for the sauce. When you have 8 pieces of mushroom, we are ready to skewer.
5. For one skewer, take one Akoya and pierce through flesh lengthwise so that is securely on for cooking. Then take one piece of mushroom and pierce through part of stem following by the cap so that it folds onto skewer. Repeat with another Akoya and mushroom to complete the skewer. Brush with some melted brown butter and season with salt. Repeat this with the other 3 skewers.
6. When ready to cook make sure your barbecue is hot to achieve a direct heat to the skewer. The point is to chargrill, not to steam. There will be some flare ups with the butter melting so make sure you have some long barbecue tweezers to move and manipulate during cooking. The skewers only need 1 – 2 minutes total cooking time. When finished cooking, spoon over 2tbsp’s of finished mushroom sauce and season the Akoya skewers lightly with flake salt.

Mushroom Sauce

1. Combine all ingredients (except for truffle jus, mirin, white wine vinegar and white soy) in a pot and gently bring to a simmer. Cover with a cartouche and continue to barely simmer on the stove for 12-24 hours. The longer you simmer the better the body and mouth feel of the finished sauce. When you are ready to strain the sauce, prepare a fine meshed sieve and strain into another container or sauce pot. When straining, press with the back side of a ladle making sure you are extruding the maximum amount out of the remnants of the sauce.
2. When ready to serve the skewers, bring the sauce up to the boil and season to your liking with truffle jus, white soy, mirin and white wine vinegar.