Monday, February 20, 2012

Oyster Season

We moved to Maryland this summer and immediately picked up on the crab scene...I mean before our furniture was delivered, we had crab traps. It was excellent.
Crab season ends with the summer and oyster season starts. We hailed our first season with a trip to the oyster festival...saw the oyster king and all.
  
We looked into harvesting some ourselves, but found it takes years for them to grow, and given that we are here with the Navy, there's no telling how long we actually have here...but, what we found out we could do was to buy a bushel and keep them in milk crates in the bay. We just pull them up whenever we want to have some, clean them, and shuck away!

This weekend was our first time prepping them ourselves. We tried them raw, grilled just for a minute with a red pepper butter, and grilled in a delicious way...recipe thanks to Magnolias. LOVED it!

Carolina Cup Crackling Oysters 
6 T grated Parmesan 
1 C mayo 
1 t Worcestershire sauce 
24 oysters, top shell removed, muscle cut, shell wiped clean of mud and shell pieces 
3/4 C ham cracklings 
Mix first three ingredients. Spoon over raw oysters. Top with cracklings and extra Parmesan. Roast for 8-10 minutes. Share with your neighbors...they'll love you for it!