Oyster Time!

Here is my latest NaNoWriMo update! I'm happy to report it's going well - better than I anticipated! And just so you know, the posts you are reading now were written a while ago and set for scheduled publishing. So no, I am not cooking and writing!

OK - I love oysters! My first taste of this sensuous sea creature came when I was young, at Christmas time when my mom used to buy canned smoked oysters. This was one of the items we'd only get at this time of the year, so it was a real treat. My brothers and I really liked them, though I don't recall my mom ever eating them and my dad is repulsed by fish so he wouldn't touch them. I do remember our cats getting excited about them, though...

Anyway, when I was in my early twenties, I went on a camping trip to Galiano Island, and we went for dinner at the Hummingbird Pub. On the menu was an oyster burger, and I was so intrigued by the idea that I had to order it. Until this experience I'd never had a fresh oyster, and let me tell you, when I bit into that burger, I thought I'd bitten into heaven.

Since then, I've had oysters on the half shell - fantastic - and other oyster burgers that have been good, but not as good as that one at the Hummingbird. Here in the interior, you get these things as they're available. And last week, LOGS (local overpriced grocery store) had oysters on sale: 8oz for $1.99. I couldn't resist! I bought a container and a nice bun and decided to make an oyster burger for myself!

When I opened the container of oysters, I found that I got 8 HUGE suckers in there and I was thrilled! Not only would I get a nice burger out of this, I would get some extra oysters too eat as well! The due date on the container was the next day, so I knew I had to use them that night as I had another plan for the next night.

So here's what I did.

I laid the oysters out and just sniffed in their sea-fresh aroma. It was heady, let me tell you!After doing that for a little while, I gathered up these ingredients: bread crumbs, cream, and Old Bay Seasoning. My plan was to shallow fry the oysters. I was going to buy buttermilk, but I had cream left over from the apple tart I'd just made, so I decided to use that. I usually use buttermilk when I go to make calamari, so I figured this method would work for oysters, too.I poured the cream over the oysters and mixed them around to cover them all very well. Then I dipped them in bread crumbs mixed with the Old Bay (I love this stuff; thanks to Pierce for recommending it to me) and fried them in a bit of oil until they were nice and browned.
Now, here is a caveat: DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS RECIPE/METHOD WITHOUT A GREASE SPLATTER SCREEN!!! There is a lot of liquid in an oyster and they splattered like hell when I put them in the oil!

The result: YUM! HEAVEN! OH MY GOD!They were so wickedly amazing! The burger was great, but eating the left over oysters just on their own was even better. I savoured every bite, let me tell you! This was so good!It's so nice to have a treat like this once in a while!