The recipe for La Mediatrice comes from the creole section of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery. Quite simply, it is a fried oyster roll somewhat akin to an oyster po’boy.
La Mediatrice is French for the peacemaker and the story behind the name is delightful. Apparently back in the day in New Orleans, drunken husbands stumbling home in the wee small hours would stop by a bakery on their way home and buy a freshly baked loaf filled with deep-fried oysters to take home to their wives to stop them from being angry about the husband’s shenanigans.
Now, I suspect that this may be apocryphal. Because personally? The idea of being woken up at 3am by a drunk brandishing an oyster roll is not something that would inspire me to sweetness. It is far more likely to send me into a vitriolic (but highly creative) rant on all the places he could shove said oyster roll!
La Mediatrice – Version 1
You will see from the pictures above that I made two versions of La Mediatrice. The first one, which confusingly is the second photo – the one with the pickles is pretty much the recipe from Good Housekeeping. I did fancy it up a bit by using some garlic and parsley infused butter instead of plain butter for the roll: And I added some smoked paprika to the flour mix for a bit of extra flavour.
The OG version was tasty but it was a little dry, which is why I decided to give it another go.
La Mediatrice – Version 2
For my second stab at this, I wanted sauce and more crunch.
To bring the crunch with the oysters instead of plain flour, I used rice flour to dredge the oysters.
I also added some cos/romaine lettuce into the rolls
And I made a Sriracha Honey Mayo for drizzling over the top:
La Mediatrice – Sriracha Honey Mayo
This is a spicy-sweet mayonnaise that perfectly accompanies a La Mediatrice
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp Sriracha chilli sauce
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp lemon juice
Instructions
Mix all ingredients together.
Notes
Quantities are a guide only. If you like it hotter use more Sriracha, sweeter use more honey, etc
I loved my sriracha mayo and the lettuce made this feel not completely unhealthy! Unfortunately, I totally forgot to put the pickles into this one but they would have been super!!!! I would strongly recommend keeping them in the dish!
Question for the week. If your partner came stumbling home dead drunk in the middle of the night, would an oyster roll calm your annoyance? If not what would be your preferred peacemaker?
