Review of last recipe (photo above) - With a hunk of spinach ... for all the prep work and basting needed, it wasn't as good as I had hoped.

TODAY'S RECIPE - HUITRES EN PAQUETS (Wrapped Oysters)
Georges Paineau, owner of Le Bretagne, a Michelin-starred restaurant and inn in Brittany (he's still alive and the establishment still open) presented these when he was the guest chef at Maison Robert in Boston in the 1980's. 

Serves 4

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, cut up
16 very large fresh spinach leaves
16 large oysters, shucked with juices saved
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper

Use 1 tsp of the butter to grease the bottom of a large skillet.  Set the skillet aside.

Remove the stems from the spinach and wash the leaves.

Wrap up the oysters as you would wrap a package, tucking in the edges first, then rolling the package over onto itself to close it.  Set the packages, seam side down, in the skillet and cover the pan with a lid.  Set the pan over high heat and cook the packages for 3 minutes, or until the spinach is bright green.  remove the pan from the heat at once and set it aside.

Combine the water, lemon juice and a pinch each of salt and pepper in a saucepan.  Bring the liquid to a boil, remove the saucepan from the heat, and let the pan cool off.

Lower the heat to medium and return the pan to the heat.  Whisk in the butter a piece at a time, moving the saucepan on and off the heat as the butter is added; the pan should never become hot enough for the butter to turn oily before it is incorporated into the sauce.

When all the butter has been added, coat the bottom of 4 salad plates with some of the sauce.  Then lift the oyster packages from the skillet with a large metal spatula, pat them on paper towels to dry them at the edges and arrange 4 oyster packages on each plate.