NOLA Style Grilled Oysters

I went grocery shopping yesterday. I bought some mussels as well as a dozen of Oregon oysters. Normally oysters from Asian seafood stores tend to be the no so good ones because the smaller ones are sold to the oyster bars. For $8 I came home with a dozen of relatively small one than usual.


I thought why not make a meal out of grilling a half dozen in New Orleans style. I have done this before but I made some minor adjustment. I made use of some panko left over from fried fish fillet a couple of days ago.

1. Get the Weber charcoal grill going so it is nice and hot when the oysters are shucked.
2. Shuck the oysters. I am still cannot figure out how to pry from the hinge. I am quite convinced either I don't have the right kind of oyster knife, or larger Pacific Northwest oyster simply difficult to open like a pro in a oyster bar. Without stabbing myself I managed to open 6 but it was hard work.
3. Sprinkle grated Grana Padano cheese mixed with granulated garlic, and freshly ground black pepper onto the oyster. About 1 ts is all you need. Sprinkle some panko on top and put a small slice of butter on top of the panko. The panko serves to soak up some butter so it does not run off should you till the oyster and spill all the delicious juice. It is very hard not to loose some precious juice in the process.
4. Grill the oysters in the charcoal gill until it is almost done.
5. Transfer the oyster to under an infra broiler to brown the top.

I like to add a couple drops of Tabasco sauce. These are no less delicious than those I had at Casamentos in New Orleans.

spring is here

March 18 Update:
Strike the iron while it is red hot, I made another meal with the remaining 6 oysters.

the ingredients

I went to get the other oyster knife that I keep in Brunnhilde (left side) and still it is just as difficult to deal with these not so small oysters. I even had sharpen the tip to make it thinner hoping it would be easier to push it through the non-existing gap at the hinge. The only way I can open these oysters is to attack them on the other side.

My oyster knife with the plastic handle works better with the bigger handle. I decide to leave 2 oysters un-open and just let the grilling do the job.
grated cheese, granular garlic, and ground pepper added

panko and butter added and are ready for the grill

While you can forego shucking the oyster and let the grill do the job. The trade off is the oyster will not be as smokey as the flesh has less time to expose to the barbecue smoke.
you want to grill them with the lid closed under direct flame of the charcoal; then you brown the top in a very hot broiler

 if you take care to minimize loosing the oyster juice the oysters are more flavorful; the concentration of the grilling and broiling of the liquid is what make grilled oyster so delicious

for some reason this robin is very obsessed in trying to breach my clerestory window; he knows the glass is there but still it just wants in; must be the fragrance of the grilled oysters