SFist in the Kitchen: Oysters
Holiday shopping and holiday parties leave us little time to cook this season. As we wandered the waterlogged Ferry Plaza market this weekend, we passed by the stalls of produce, knowing any veggies we bought would go bad before we prepared them. We're sure many of you face the same dilemma this week, unless of course you're cooking for a holiday party.
But then we saw the Hog Island Oysters stall. Wouldn't it be civilized, we thought, to make a lunch of oysters on the half-shell? It would be our reward for dealing with holiday madness. Plus, we'd argue that luxurious treats wrapped in sealed boxes are the perfect symbol of the season.
Photos by Melissa Schneider
We like them raw, mere seconds beyond the shucker's blade and served with a choice of lemon wedges or mignonette sauce (1 Tb. minced shallots, 1 tsp. ground black pepper in 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar, ideally left overnight). But we know this isn't for everyone. We used to hate raw oysters. If you're squeamish, you might prefer Oysters Rockefeller, in which you bake oysters and top them with greens and bacon. We've dunked the fleshy interiors in buttermilk, breaded them, and fried them. One of these days we plan to make a good oyster stuffing. You can be finicky about the breed if you want (we love tiny and creamy Kumamotos), but any good oyster will suffice.
No matter how you serve them, you should buy them in the shell and shuck them yourself. In the shell, they can keep for a couple days in the refrigerator, covered with a wet towel. Out of the shell, you've probably got half an hour even if they're on ice.
If you've never shucked an oyster before, don't worry. After the first few you'll get the hang of it. We like to rest the oyster on a firm surface with the seam on top, and then hold it down with our left hand, which we protect from knife slips with a bunched up dish towel. We find the hinge at one end where the shell comes together (usually it looks like a point), and then we work an oyster knife into the space. The test kitchen currently uses an OXO oyster knife, but we intend to replace it with one that has a narrower blade and a sharper point. As you push the knife in, try to keep it near the top of the shell, and scrape along the top as you go. Try to keep all the liquid inside the shell. When the top shell's off, run the knife along the underside of the oyster to loosen it from the bottom shell. Your oyster meat is ready to be slurped or cooked.
If you plan to do this a lot, invest in a heavy rubber oyster glove. On the other hand, we love the idea of going all Gimli on an oyster with this sweet chain mail version.
Most people open a bottle of sparkling wine to accompany these treats, but we prefer wines with a quivering minerality: the Basque Txacolina, Muscadets or Sancerres from the Loire, and New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs are all good choices.