September 2015 – Rodney's Oyster House

Thanksgiving

The House will be closed on Monday, October 12th so the Crew can spend time being thankful. We’ll be back again on Tuesday at 11:30 am sharp!

World Shucking Championships update – Eamon Clark placed third at this year’s event (top 3 two years in a row, but the Winner’s Plate still proving elusive under the hard-to-figure-out “Presentation” bonus scoring the Irish use in their judging). Still, congrats to Estonia for the repeat win.

For your Thanksgiving meal, here’s a recipe for making Oyster Stuffing, courtesy of the Washington Post:

OYSTER STUFFING:

Note: Due to the perishability of the oysters, do not make the stuffing more than a day in advance. Keep it refrigerated, tightly covered with plastic wrap. Add 10 minutes to the baking time if the stuffing is baked in a casserole, or bring the stuffing to room temperature before stuffing the turkey prior to roasting.

SERVINGS: 12

INGREDIENTS

8 ounces stale French baguette, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
Nonstick cooking oil spray
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 stalks celery, trimmed and cut crosswise into thin slices
2 large onion, cut into small dice
1 large carrot, cut into small dice
1 pint shucked fresh oysters with their liquor
1/2 cup unsalted chicken broth
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon leaves (may substitute 1 teaspoon dried tarragon)
2 teaspoons thyme leaves (may substitute 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves)
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted, canned broth)
Pinch freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spread the stale bread cubes on a rimmed baking sheet, and spray them lightly with nonstick cooking oil spray. Bake on the middle oven rack for 10 to 15 minutes, turning them after 5 minutes, or until the cubes are toasted. Remove and allow to cool to room temperature before storing in a resealable plastic food storage bag.

If the stuffing is to be baked separately, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the celery, onions and carrot and cook for at least 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the vegetables haven softened. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Add the oysters and their liquor, the broth, herbs, parsley, salt (if using) and pepper; toss to mix well, then transfer to a casserole or use the mixture to stuff a turkey immediately before it is to be roasted.

Bake the stuffing in the separate casserole dish for 1 hour. Serve warm.

What a versatile beast, the Oyster. Happy Thanksgiving, from Rodney and the Crew.

LAMEQUE

One of the nicest Oysters we see all year is the Lameque, coming from Miscou in NE New Brunswick. The larger body of water is the Baie de Chaleur (Bay of Heat, ahh), but in fact, the Lameque oyster is about as cold-water as an oyster can get. Any colder, and the oyster cannot reproduce, as the summer temperature doesn’t get high enough to to stimulate that phase in an oyster’s annual cycle.

Seafood that comes from colder waters typically has a higher fat content. Fat, of course, is what makes things delicious (see: Cote de Boeuf; Pork Belly; Butter). Lameques have a beautiful crispness to the flavour, mild but salty. The meat is nice and shell-filling, with a firm texture.

We see a couple of grades at the Oyster House, the ‘Cocktail’ and the ‘Verte.’ This is the Verte:

The Verte is typically about 3″ (larger than the cocktail). This particular specimen doesn’t have quite as much of the green algae that give it its name.

There’s a nice thickness to the shell – this is an oyster that wants to be shucked. Yvon Chiasson, the farmer, leaves these on the bottom to toughen up for a good stretch of their lives, and as a result they have a nice hard thick shell that’s easy to open. Unlike exclusively tray-raised oysters, a bottom-finished oyster tends to open more easily as it is not so brittle.

Lameques are in-House for about 8 months of the year. Despite the cold water he has to work with, Yvon doesn’t sell them in the summer. But they’re back on our beds and looking beautiful for the Fall and Winter. The Vertes are a 250-count Oyster – 250 to the box – so when we’re washing them we’ve usually got a good supply. If you were to informally poll our staff, they would probably elect the Lameque as the favourite ‘year-round’ Oyster that we see (the Sand Dune winning the title of ‘Best Oyster,’ despite the fact that we only get about 5000 a year. But Sand Dunes are for a subsequent post).

What an Oyster!

World Championships

The competitive shucking season is coming to a close. The last real item on the calendar is the World Oyster Opening Championships, which happens in Galway Ireland each September. In what has become an annual trip, local boy Eamon Clark will be making the journey for a 7th time to represent the Oyster House, the city and the Country. Last year he came 2nd (for the second time) in the only shucking contest we enter where the contestant can earn time back onto his score through subjective “presentation” points. Reeks somewhat of ice dancing in the 90’s, but what can you do? It’s the world championships. And it lets us visit friends like the Kellys, and stop in at Moran’s – 7 generations of Oysterin’ going strong.

The Irish Oyster should start making an appearance on our beds in October, both gigas and edulis (aka European) Oysters, as they come out of their summer spawning period. The edulis pairs quite nicely with a drop o’ Islay single malt, like a Bowmore, don’t ya know.