Happy Huitres
Jun 24th, 2008 by Marilyn
I have tried to like oysters. I have. Certainly I like the idea of oysters – natural, rough, juicy, briny. The glimmering hope of pearls.
And how about those camera-ready looks? I mean, look at those Paris oysters - huitres. They are piled in baskets for the evening’s delight, and people rush home with so many damp bags that the street smells like a shoreline. I admire their rocky textures and lust for them, they are all so different, and have different names, and…and…wait. A dim light behind the lens. But you don’t like oysters. Well…yes. Maybe I just like taking their picture.
In yesterday’s Tell Simmer, Molly Wizenberg noted that she, too, wishes she could thrill to the slimy devils but just can’t – yet. I’ve downed a few oysters in places where it’s worth trying, coast to coast, and I even own a shucker, but that tool sits dry in a drawer.
I suspect I only like oysters in some fussy preparation like Oysters Rockefeller, where buttery crumbs on your tongue mask the watery gulp in your throat. Love them or leave them, oysters inspire waves of feeling. Do you love our rubbery friends from the deep?
While you chew on that, check out this recipe from Patricia Wells’ classic Bistro Cooking. From a restaurant on the Atlantic coast of France called L’Huitre Joyeuse – The Happy Oyster – it combines spicy sausage and oysters for a traditional fisherman’s snack. Add buttered bread, and we may have an oyster I can get behind.
Huitres et Saucisses from L’Huitre Joyeuses
4 servings
1 dozen oysters, shells well scrubbed under cold running water, shucked
crushed ice
8 oz bulk pork sausage meat
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon crushed hot red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Place the oysters on a plate of crushed ice. Arrange the oysters, balancing them so they do not lose any of their liquid. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and refrigerate. Remove the oysters 10 minutes before serving.
In a medium-size bowl, blend the sausage meat with the thyme, pepper flakes and salt. Mix well with your hands to blend thoroughly. Shape the pork mixture into 4 equal-size round patties, about 1/2-inch thick.
In a medium-size skillet, cook the patties over medium-high heat until golden brown on the outside and cooked all the way through, about 5 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels. Serve the sausages immediately, accompanied by the oysters, sliced of buttered, crisp-crusted bread, and chilled white wine.
I’ve tried oysters and can’t seem to figure out what all the fuss is about. If you ask me, they taste like rubber that’s been marinating in seawater and sand.
My dad loves them raw and cooked. Every Thanksgiving he makes scalloped oysters, which consits of saltine crackers, oysters, and large amounts of butter and cream.
I love oysters – especially from Brittany but I’ll take the half dozen Malpeque oysters I had yesterday evening accompanied by an ice cold martini on a deck overlooking the harbor. Heaven.
I love oysters. The Fiance loves to order items that SOUND good but he may or may not like the ingredients of. I usually end up eating whatever it is because when it arrives – he doesn’t like the “stuff” in it. At the Oyster Bar in NYC he decided to order a shot of vodka that arrived with a bottom layer of cocktail sauce, a layer of vodka…and had a raw oyster floating in it. It was expensive. He wouldn’t even pick it up. I can’t/won’t waste money so I tossed it back. DELISH!!
Really…it was yum.
I eat oysters in two *very* un-chic ways: steamed on a saltine with ketchup or fried. there, i admit it, i’m uncivilized.
I love oysters too. I used to not touch ‘em.
I usually prefer mine steamed with horseradish and hot sauce on a saltine. The best I ever had was at some dive bar at the mouth of the St. Marks river on the gulf side of Florida. Oyster Po’Boys in NOLA, yum. Fried oysters made by my grandmother – double yum. They banned oyster harvesting in Georgia today. I just heard all about it on NPR.
I honestly didn’t know that Saltines could be involved with oysters. This changes everything!
No one’s mentioned the would-be aphrodisiac qualities of oysters. Anything?
Maybe oysters on a saltine is a southern thing?? Don’t know?
That is how they are always served in these parts with a basket of saltines.
If the oyster is rubbery-It’s been overcooked. Like Calamari when it is over cooked, just like eating fried rubber bands.
Aphrodisiac—–notta.
I’ll only eat ‘em if they’re fried. Cornmeal-dusted oysters in a salad are yummy.
I’ve only ever had fines de claires oysters once but they were the purest, sweetest and cleanest tasting oysters I have ever had. The Champagne of the bi-valve world
Raw oysters are my very favorite food in the whole world (pig’s feet run a close second). Oysters are perfect when simply drizzled with lemon, allowing the full briney-ness to engulf your taaste buds. The most I’ve ever had in one sitting is 41 (at Grand Central’s Oyster Bar).
All I can say is I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t appreciate the oyster — one of life’s most sublime pleasures.