Charbroiled Oysters on the Egg, NOLA style

hogaholic · January 2012

Sorry for not having any pics of this - I'm doing again Sunday night so I'll try to get some then.

IF any of you fellow eggheads have ever eaten chargrilled oysters in New Orleans you know that this is the "best bite of food" in NOLA. I have eaten them at Drago's and ACME Oyster house in Meterie and at ACME in Baton Rouge. The recipe and execution is pretty simple, so I gave them a shot last night. If I may say so, they were outstanding and my guests were amazed.

I was in Baton Rouge this week so I took my cooler and came back with a whole sack of oysters (about 80 oysters), 3 lbs of large size shrimp, an oyster knife and a packet of Louisanna BBQ Shrimp Sauce seasoning.

Shucked 4-5 dozen oysters and got them ready. It was cool outside so I just laid them out on a couple of large pans and covered with foil.

Butter Sauce:
melt 2 lbs unsalted butter in a pan and add the following:
a lot of finely minced or chopped fresh garlic - I minced an entire large bulb.
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp dried oregano
fresh ground pepper to taste

Cheese Mixture - in a bowl mix the following:
1 cup finely grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
1 cup finely grated Romano Cheese
3 tbsp finely chopped Italian (flatleaf) parsley

How to prepare

Egg at about 450 direct, porcelain grate sitting on the fire ring in the "standard" position

Place some oysters on the grid, doing your best to balance them where they sit as level as possible

Let them cook for about a minute or two

When you see the oyster starting to curl up on the edges, add a bit of the butter sauce to each oyster and be ready, because not all the butter will stay in the shell and there will be some flame-ups. This is what you want to add some flavor and toast the oyster.

Allow to cook another minute or so in the butter sauce.

When the oysters starts to turn brown around the edges and sizzle then add the cheese mixture to each oyster. I also go back and put a bit more of the butter sauce in too.

Pull them with some long tongs when the cheese has melted.

Serve with fresh sliced french bread to sop up the sauce.

Gato · January 2012

I have seen a similar recipe on nola cuisine.com but have yet to try it. It is on my to cook list. Sounds incredible!! Bet there will be some eaten in N.O. this weekend!! Geaux Tigers!!!

hogaholic · January 2012

It was incredible. The recipes are all very similar. I've see the one on NOLA Cuisine and one from another cookbook that is susposedly the Drago's recipe. Drago's uses a mix of margarine and butter and the secret is the ratio. I mixed it 50:50 last night. Personally I don't think it matters.

I shucked and cooked about 4 dozen oysters for this cook. No point in doing it for just a dozen. I plan on cooking the rest of the oysters tomorrow night.

A trick that several "cajun" friends gave me is to save the shells, wash them up in the dishwasher and reuse them. That way you can buy the oysters next time already shucked and just put one in a shell and do it all over again. Sounds good to me.

Hope LSU wins big Monday night. The Bammers have become so insufferably arrogant around here I can't stand to be around them anymore.

stilllaughing · January 2012

We always stay at Harrah's in NOLA. The first order of business upon arrival is to go to Drago's in the Hilton across the street for the grilled oysters and a sazerac. NOLA mode is then in full gear.

I grill them the same way using a baster to put the butter sauce in them and sometime I put a little panko on them before the butter. Tonight it's grilled oysters, shrimp and scallops cajun style for the game.

Hillbilly-Hightech · January 2012

mmmmmm - I've done some oysters, ala Drago's style (pretty much the same recipe Hogaholic posted), and they turned out FABULOUS!!!

I'd do them more often, but shucking them is a PITA!!!

woody's wood pit · January 2012

i found them in no last year and feel in love with them, now i can repoduce them here...have tried them several times in other areas and nothing like the ones in no...thanks

horseflesh · January 2012

When I saw hogaholic's post I immediately went to the store to get some oysters.

I was not disappointed... absolutely delicious. Next time I will try some white wine instead of lemon juice, though. And I'll throw on some wood chips. I cooked over bare RO this time, and could have used a little more smoke flavor.

I love oysters, though can't recall the last time I had them cooked--I always get 'em raw. And I have never actually handled them at home, either. Without an oyster knife, shucking them was an adventure.

Thanks for posting! I'll definitely make these again. We're lucky to have good oysters in Washington.

hogaholic · January 2012

Flesh,

Me too - this was my first time to do it. I travel to the gulf coast frequently now with my job and have several South Louisiana friends that like to cook. Between watching the guys at Drago's and ACME Oyster House in NOLA. reading the internet and talking to my buddy from Lafayette, it really wasn't that much of a problem. The preparation is easy (once you get the hang of shucking the oysters) and it is all in the execution.

Observations from the two cooks I did with that bag of oysters (about 75 or 80 usable oysters):

1. Get a good oyster knife - it makes all the difference in the world. Take your time and don't put too much pressure on the knife. Getting it placed correctly in the hinge is the key then a bit of penatration and a twist of the knife is all it takes.

2. Don't put too many oysters on the grill at the same time unless you have some help. My outdoor cooking setup has my large Egg beside my gasser under a commercial Vent-a-Hood. I had both going at the same time and it was too much because all the flame-ups caused some to get too done. Sunday night I just used the gasser and it worked great.

3. I like to hit 'em one last time with the butter sauce just before taking them off the grill because it gives me more sauce to mop up with the french bread !!!!

4. I think I will use a bit less garlic next time and the white wine is a nice idea.

Mickey · January 2012

Hogaholic is so right. Have had them at ACME Oyster House in NO, Baton Rouge, and San Destin. Never tried them at home but will now. Thanks so much for this post.

Griffin · January 2012

Man oh man, you hit me with a craving now. I can't remember all the places we had those in NO about this time last year, but they were amazing. I'm saving this post now and looking for oysters...if I can find any that look good and are affordablein Dallas.

Hillbilly-Hightech · January 2012

Man oh man, you hit me with a craving now. I can't remember all the places we had those in NO about this time last year, but they were amazing. I'm saving this post now and looking for oysters...if I can find any that look good and are affordablein Dallas.

Griffin - not sure if they have these in the Dallas area, but in the Bay Area they have grocery stores that cater to Asian foods & products - the stores are called Ranch 99. They sell oysters that are fresh (meaning, still alive), as well as some that are on ice.

The oysters you see in the pic I posted (where a friend & I are shucking them) are from Ranch 99.

Hopefully you can find a place similar in your area,

HTH,
Rob

stike · January 2012

hey HH, how were you trying to shuck them? i've tried it a few ways, and some are better than others.

i used to try the old church-key under the rear hinge (of the oyster) thing. was hit or miss.

forget about sliding a knife in from the thin end, pits. the layers of the shell disguise the gap too much for my sorry eyes, and the edge chips easily.

what i have done since, and which works pretty good, is to rest a towel on the counter, wrap the corner of the towel around the oyster to grip it, and then stick an oyster knife (which i know you said you didn';t have) into the rear joint. right at (or even into) the little black/brown bump that looks like the hinge.

i know the pros can do it in one move. not me. just stick it in a bit, and twist, then push it in more, twist. at some point the knife goes in and you can slice the muscle.

if this is what you have been doing, and it was still a PITA, then i guess it's just practice you need. i'm still slow at it, admittedly.

how many did you do?

here's a sad frikkin story.... wife bought a dozen oysters for christmas eve. got sidetracked. remembered them the day after christmas...... waste of good oysters.

Mickey · January 2012

Good thing there were not left in the trunk of the car......

Hillbilly-Hightech · January 2012

Stike - well, I don't have an oyster knife, but I did what any self-respecting redneck would do - I used a good old fashioned flat head screwdriver!! Heheheh..

You can barely see it in the pic, but there's a red handled one laying beside my buddy (he's the one in the blue shirt). That, and some paper towels & regular towels to put over the shells to act as a "buffer" for your hand in case you slip (and also act as friction as well) seemed to open them up.

We actually went in from the opposite side of the "hinge" point (actually, any small area where I could slip the edge of the screwdriver in).

And yes, it was a PITA - and I've only done it a couple times before - but this time, we had 3 dozen oysters, so it was quite a deal to get them all shucked. (I even took an awl and/or chisel to the more "stubborn" ones to make my own opening) :-)

Ended up that we'd get about 1/2 dozen or so at a time, and then put them on the Egg & while they were grilling, we'd be working on the others - so it was kind of an assembly line process - thing is, as soon as one set was grilled, they didn't last too long (got eaten pretty quickly).

Everyone said they LOVED them (I only got to eat a couple). My GF said that she wanted them "done" a little more (I think I put them on the grill, directly above the coals, for about 4-5 minutes) - but she said she remembered the ones we got from Drago's had the cheese a bit "browned" (which mine did not) - so the next time, she wants me to keep them on the grill for another few minutes to brown the cheese.

And yes, wasting oysters is an ugly thing - I remember when I lived in New England, there was a place in Nashua, NH I could go to that had oysters right off the docks from that morning (I'm sure there are places like that on the coast of MA where you can get them from the actual fishermen), but at the time, I lived in NH so that was the closest place for me.

Nothing like oysters so fresh that they're only a couple hours old!!! mmmmmm!!!

stike · January 2012

screwdriver is MUCH better than an actual sharp table knife, which is what a lot of folks are tempted to do. you want something dull that won't slice your hand off if/when it slips.

next time try that trick about going in from the hinge side. they say you can pop the hinge with leverage, but i just slide the knife into that soft brown/black spot. it's soft, which means the knife rarely slips, and the shell is very thick back there, so rarely is there a cracked shell or anything like that.

anyway. i love oysters, and am tempted to try them the way you did them. other than oysters rockerfeller, at a restaurant, every oyster i have ever had has been raw, and i haven't been tempted. but those NOLA ones are tempting.

stilllaughing · January 2012

I just buy them already in the half shell from restaurant supply stores or seafood stores. They may not be quite as fresh but the price is comparable and since I'm charring them the taste difference is very little. Then I don't have to spend my time doing something I'm not good at like shucking oysters.

Hillbilly-Hightech · January 2012

Stike - I'll try the hinge side the next time. Actually, I saw this & may go to the local BB&B store & check it out: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=16075345

Stilllaughing - I may check out the half shelled ones... thanks

stike · January 2012

yeah, that kind of knife is good. rounded tip, and the cross section is rounded too. short blade (less slipping).

min is an old wood one, my grandfather's. pretty cool. though it got a chip from the tip taken out somehow.

i never see th pre-shucked around here. but i'd still buy the unshucked i think. still have all the likker in 'em

stilllaughing · January 2012

They still have almost all of the "likker" in them. In fact, the other night I just scooped a tray of these into a bowl and then breaded them with their own liquor and flour for a Po-Boy.

hogaholic · January 2012

Been out for a few days recovering from surgery. Good discussions, sorry I missed it.

Shucking the oysters isn't hard, at least I thought it wasn't. Several keys to success I might mention:

1. Wash all the mud and crap off the oysters before you shuck them. Makes them much easier to hold and identify hinge and top and bottom of the oyster. You want to shuck them with the flat side up so the oyster stays in the bottom with the juice.

2. Identify the hinge and slowly and carefully work the tip of an oyster knife into the hinge. Be careful here. Apply steady pressure on the knife to prevent the knife from slipping while penetrating the hinge. Once you get the knife tip in there a twist of the knife is all that is needed to open the shell.

Charbroiled Oysters on the Egg, NOLA style

Comments

Categories