Help me lighten up my oyster stew recipe, please?

[The Dairy Queen]

I was overjoyed by this thread http://www.chowhound.com/topics/460838 talking about substituting for the half and half in an oyster stew recipe. I have a family recipe that basically calls for half-and-half, whole milk, oysters, and a ton of butter. This recipe, more or less, excluding the cayenne: http://www.recipezaar.com/13649

What substitutions could I make to make this as low-fat as possible, for the butter in particular since that's not discussed in the thread I linked? Can you sub fish stock for the butter?

Could I use evaporated milk (instead of the half and half) +non-fat milk (instead of the whole milk)+fish stock (instead of the butter)+oysters and have something that would taste good?

Oyster stew is an important tradition, so, I need to come up with some kind of alternative that would taste good, but not break the calorie bank, so to speak...

Ideas?

My waistline thanks you!

~TDQ

[soupkitten]

hmm. maybe try this: (recipe calls for 4tbs-8tbs butter)

use 2 tbsp butter, melt in pan, saute 2-3 tbsp very finely minced shallot/onion and celery until soft. add 2 tbsp flour (you will need the flour's thickening power later on to replace the reduced amt. of cream). cook flour a few minutes. add a little of the oyster liquor and deglaze the pan. empty pan into blender/food proc. and puree until smooth adding more oyster liquor if nec.

add back to pot and proceed w/ recipe as directed. i'd maybe use 1 1/2 quart whole milk and 1/2 quart half and half. ime skim milk is death to soup.

it's not totally fat-free, but the smaller amount of butter and cream will lighten it significantly and the shallot/celery/butter/flour trick will add a little unobtrusive flavor & thickening power rather than fat. i do something pretty similar with wild rice soup in order to lighten it up. another thickening trick that may or may not work with the flavor of your traditional family recipe is to use pureed white rice in place of some of the cream, but your recipe is so simple & traditional that i'd hesitate to tweak it too much & for your whole fam to call me the grinch!

okay. that's my idea. --sk

[The Dairy Queen]

I forgot to mention that the cook at our house sometimes takes creative liberty and adds more butter than the recipe calls for...the stew has a serious layer of butter that swims on top. :).

I like your suggestions, especially the trick with the flour.

You don't think we can reduce the amount of butter and half and half even more and substitute some evap milk (in addition to the flour trick, of course?) Or is that just asking for trouble?

The white rice trick might work, too, but I agree it adds a whole new level of complexity.

I think we'll trial this recipe over the next week or so and see how it goes.

~TDQ

[soupkitten]

if you do try the recipe and the flavor & texture is acceptable to all, i'd go for it & try to reduce the butter further (to 1 tbsp) and replace some of the heavy milk products w the evap milk or the rice, but from what i understand, the richness of traditional oyster stew is part of its appeal-- you probably don't want to go and entirely eliminate butter from a recipe that basically IS butter, milk/cream, oysters, s&p-- to do so may change, and *impoverish* (maybe that's the word i'm looking for?) the taste and mouthfeel of the soup. i'm sorry that i personally don't cook anything close to this exact soup & can only speculate about it, but i guess i'd take the lightening of a holiday tradition in stages, until the character of the soup begins to change too much for comfort. it might not be a bad idea to serve a smaller portion of it, like sweetie says. . . kinda like my family forcing itself to only make a few kinds of holiday cookies, instead of dozens of 17 different kinds. . .
ahh, holiday fun!

[The Dairy Queen]

Okay, so we tried this yesterday with 2% milk instead of whole milk and evap milk instead of the cream. Plus the flour trick. Actually, it wasn't bad, though, it wasn't as thick as the original. When time comes to do the real thing, we'll probably bump to whole milk and half and half in the proportions sk recommends.

But, it did retain the right mix of flavors, I thought, even with the 2%+evap. But the thing we really missed was the puddle of butter. I did try to sprinkle some butter buds over the top, but it just tasted chemically to me. :( Maybe we'll try Molly McButter, as someone recommended below, though it wasn't at the grocery store I went to yesterday (they had the cheese flavor, but not the butter flavor.)

The oyster crackers were as good as ever.

~TDQ

[soupkitten]

thanks for updating us-- i'll be interested to see your final, updated recipe, and find out how it goes over with the whole fam.

[sweetie]

I don't think the texture of the soup would be the same if you used fish stock instead of butter. Perhaps you could use less butter but try the skim or 2% evap milk instead of the half and half (or maybe get really small soup bowls).

[The Dairy Queen]

Yeah, I was afraid that would be the case with the fish stock and the texture...

~TDQ

[Sherri]

When Julia Child was asked for a reduced fat Bearnaise Sauce she succintly replied, "Choose another recipe, dearie".

Real oyster stew is velvety smooth and rich with the goodness of, dare I say the F-word, fat and oysters. Serve small portions to conserve calories but, please do not tinker with simple perfection. Whe oyster stew is made with fresh oysters, good cream & butter it proclaims that all is right with the world.

[soupkitten]

pish-posh!
it's a soup, not a sauce, & she's lightening the recipe from butter-slick-floating-atop-bowl to sleek, chic, 21st century oyster stew, should be entirely possible. . . restaurants do it all the time. shouldn't even feel bad about it, because great gram never had the access to ingredients we do today, otherwise she'd have played around with them! nor, i'd add, knowledge enough to worry about health problems such as diabetes. . . lighten/brighten on TDQ, lighten/brighten on!

[NE_Elaine]

You didn't specify, but I was wondering if you are attempting to tinker with a holiday tradition here. I think that makes a big difference in what you can get away with. You can try to lighten up a stew for a Sunday dinner, but if this is a Christmas tradition, watch out!
My mom tried to lighten up her lobster bisque one xmas and there were many long faces at the table. Expectations are high around the holidays and I don't think it is worth it to mess up a perfect dish to save a couple calories.
I would say, serve it in a smaller cup or pick another soup.

[The Dairy Queen]

I do understand the importance of holiday tradition. One of these days I'll tell you the story of how I tinkered with Thanksgiving by serving green chili turkey stew instead of the traditional meal of roasted turkey and trimmings Bad idea.

But, yes, in this case, it is a family tradition that just a few people in the group cling to. But, ironically, those same people have various and sundry health problems that require some dietary restrictions--they just can't eat butter and cream by the spoonful, even a small spoonful, anymore. It's either lighten the stew up or have no stew at all, which I think would be heartbreaking.

And while we could certainly eliminate the oyster stew from our menu, why should we if I can produce a delicious soup that is a lot lighter, even if it isn't "the same."?

And, I personally would enjoy the soup if it were lighter. To me, the star of oyster stew should be the oysters. And the oyster crackers. :)

I'm going to experiment with some of the suggestions you've given me and see what we can live with. However, I'm hearing from you all loud and clear that to eliminate ALL of the butter and ALL of the cream would be a mistake...so, I'll see how much I can leave in. :). Thanks everyone.

~TDQ

[NE_Elaine]

Good luck with your tinkering - you did receive some really good ideas in this posting. I see many bowls of oyster stew in your future as you experiment. Just remember one thing - don't try to eliminate the oyster crackers! ;-)

[Caroline1]

In the past, when I've been on a restricted fat (30 grams per day) diet, I found that I could use Molly McButter (original flavor) in oyster stew with 2% milk and get a nearly identical result as with real butter. Don't know if they still make Molly Mcbutter, but I never found another butter flavoring (dry or liquid!) that comes as close to real butter in taste.

If the consistensy is too thin just using 2% milk, you can thicken it a bit with a light slurry of arrowroot or even tapioca flour. But I wouldn't us cornstarch or flour.