How to Cook and Serve Shucked Oyster
Shell no! We don’t need any shells to enjoy oysters. If anything, the hard work of shucking is taken care of with these ready-to-go oysters.
Not just for soups and stews, shucked oysters lend themselves well to a variety of creative cooking applications. Here we’ll map out our 4 favorite ways to cook and serve shucked oysters.
Fried Oysters
Anyone who is a fan of these famed mollusks loves a good fried oyster. For fail-proof fried oysters start by thoroughly draining the oysters from their liquor (or juices), shaking them a little to remove as much liquid as possible. Sandwich the oysters in between a couple sheets of paper towels and gently pat to expel any additional liquid. Place the oysters in a bowl with beaten eggs and set aside to soak for 10 minutes. In another bowl, combine your dry ingredients and seasoning. We love a combination of cornmeal, flour, and Old Bay seasoning but feel free to use your favorites. After the oysters have soaked, remove them from the eggs, letting any excess egg drip off, and coat in the dry ingredients. Heat oil in a deep fryer or high sided skillet to 350-375°F. Working in batches (making sure not to overcrowd the fryer or skillet), fry for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Set fried oysters aside to drain (paper towel or wire rack) before serving.
We love serving our fried oysters with ample amounts of tartar sauce, lemon wedges, and malt vinegar.
Sautéed Oysters
Sautéed oysters are really really good and, in my humble opinion, an underutilized cooking method for shucked oysters. Use the same draining and drying procedure as you would for preparing fried oysters, minus the eggs and coating. Melt butter or heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Once the skillet is hot, add oysters, making sure not to overcrowd the pan, and briefly cook for 1-2 minutes per side or until soft and tender. Remove from the pan and set the cooked oysters aside. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
At this point, you can add other ingredients to your skillet (adding additional butter or oil if needed). I love adding chopped garlic and shallots to the skillet, sautéing until fragrant, and deglazing with a little bit of white wine or lemon juice. Then, right before serving, you can toss the cooked oysters with the pan add-ins (adding in a heaping handful of fresh herbs, if you’d like) and serve it up scampi-style.
We love serving our sautéed oysters with good crusty bread or toast points to soak up all that tasty goodness. For a more complete meal, serve your sautéed oysters with rice or pasta and your favorite sautéed vegetables.
Baked Oysters
If you have a muffin pan you can make some truly amazing shucked oyster appetizers. Fill the individual muffin cups with oysters and your favorite oyster toppings (butter, herbs, aromatics, veggies, cracker crumbs, cheese, etc…) or stuffings. I love making Oysters Rockefeller this way! Bake at 400°F or broil (broil only if you are not using a bread stuffing or topping) until the oysters are tender and your stuffing or toppings are slightly caramelized.
We love getting a little extra milage out of our deviled egg platter when serving baked oysters. If your stuffing threatens to overflow a deviled egg platter, feel free to use individual metal muffin cups or oven-proof soufflé cups.
Steamed Oysters
Just like in-shell oysters, shucked oysters can be steamed too! All you need is a vegetable steamer pan or insert. Lightly grease the steamer pan with a little pan release spray and, once hot, add the oysters (again, not overcrowding the pan), and steam for 2-3 minutes until soft and tender. The trick with steaming shucked oysters is that they can over cook quickly, so keep a close eye on them. You’re looking for steamed oysters that are still a little jiggly but not rubbery.
Serve your steamed oysters with a hearty drizzle of lemon juice, cocktail sauce, melted butter, or hot sauce. We love a simple buttery cracker or toast point for scooping and munching.
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Do you have a favorite oyster recipe that you would like to share? Have a trick or tip that we haven’t covered? Feel free to share it with us! We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to cook and prepare our seafood. Post your images, recipe or tips on any of our social pages…. @cameronsseafoodonline (for Instagram) or @CameronsSeafood (for Facebook).
About the author
Patterson Watkins is a professional chef with over 17 years of experience. With a robust career in restaurants, contract dining and catering (including 4 Summer Olympic posts preparing food for the athletes!) Patterson joined the Cameron’s Seafood team at the end of 2018 to concoct some delicious recipes with our premium seafood items as the centerpiece.
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The post How to Cook and Serve Shucked Oyster appeared first on Cameron's Seafood.