What I did Yesterday

What a perfect day yesterday was here. The sky was an intense blue, the maple leaves are turning, it was foggy on the water in the morning but burned off by noon. We went to our first oyster picking in Puget Sound. I won this at an auction last spring at our UUC church. There were six of us and it was fabulous! Last evening we had an oyster shucking party and BBQ oysters, fried oysters, Throwdown bread (http://politicook.net/2008/06/27/bread-throwdown/), and a lovely apple, grape and walnut salad. Dessert was a rasberry sorbet. My sweetie and I were celebrating our 5th anniversary. YUM!
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Picking oysters in the early morning is sublime. Cool, salty water splashes your face, but the mounds of Sound oysters are lovely. Then come the hard parts. Cleaning, shucking and cooking.

There’s this stuff called panko that is a sort of Japanese breadcrumb/not really breadcrumb that is good to bread oysters in for pan frying. It’s basically white bread without crusts dried and crushed not too finely. I buy mine at an oyster place in Westport. I like my oysters pan fried in butter and olive oil, it is a much nicer way to cook them tenderly.
I had BBQ oysters for the first time. You place a closed oyster on the grill rounded side down on a medium to slow fire and wait for it to pop open. Slather with hot sauce and enjoy!

Here’s Cha Cha Cha’s Buttermilk Fried Oysters

3 eggs
2 C buttermilk
12 oysters, shucked (more are better)
1 C flour
1 C cornmeal
1/4 C olive oil
Beat eggs and buttermilk. Dredge oysters in flour, buttermilk mixture, then cornmeal. Heat oil and fry oysters on each side until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

I like to make the egg-buttermilk mixture and then dip the oysters in it and roll in Panko (or Panko/white cornmeal mixture) and sautee in a olive oil butter-at-the-last-minute mixture and sautee on both sides in a medium hot pan until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Either recipe calls for salt and freshly ground black pepper and hot sauce on the table. Add a green salad, a lemon cucumber salad and some pickled red onions and you have an excellent meal!

Tags: oysters, PNW cooking, Recipes, salad, Seafood