Birthday Surprise

[Gonna Smoke]

My best friend and his youngest daughter share a birthday, March 30, and they both love seafood so I came up with a plan for them...steamed oysters and Frogmore stew. I picked up a bushel of select oysters, these were from Virginia, and the makings for the boil that I didn't have...

Very lightly steamed the oysters in a pot with a basket and just a little water. Served with saltine crackers, hot sauce, and cocktail sauce...

It took 3 cookings, but a bushel of oysters disappeared quickly. If you don't like oysters, I get it completely. My wife HATED them forever until one day about 10 years ago when she tried one again at the beach. She's been eating them ever since.

The Frogmore Stew was the same as I have posted before HERE...

I had about 25 people here to celebrate the day...Happy Birthday to my family...

 

[JLeonard]

Man! Wouldnt take many of those oysters to make a meal. They are huge!
And the rest is just icing on the cake!!!!

Jim

 

[Nefarious]

Looks good from where I sit, I could eat a bunch of those, not as many as the puget sound oysters which are much smaller. Delicious, sounds like a good party.

Where's the beer?

 

[uncle eddie]

A little Tabasco and a few of those oysters wouldn't have made it into the boil!

Nice looking meal! Hard to beat a spread like that!

 

[GaryHibbert]

That Frogmore stew looks REAL good. I could sure use a couple of bowls of that right now.
The oysters, well I'll pass on--little too "rare" for me. When I cook them I bread them with Ritz Crackers and fry them until they have some "body" to them when I cut 'em. Delicious!!
Gary

 

[Steve H]

Looks great!! I used to eat clams and oysters raw. Or warmed. But developed an allergy about 25 years ago. Think of Rocky Balboa after 13 rounds.....
I do miss those days with my dad in Long Island. Digging clams. And eating them fresh from the water with ketchup and hot sauce.

 

[thirdeye]

Great lookin' oysters! I grew up on Gulf of Mexico oysters, fresh and raw, grilled on the half-shell, or fried. They are more briny than East coast oysters. In the afternoon, my Grandmother would buy them off the boats along with 'bait shrimp' (heads-on, in the 26/30 range, packed in crushed ice) as some fisherman did not have a permit to sell seafood for consumption. I doubt those rules are broken these days.

 

[jcam222]

Man those are some huge oysters!! Lovecthem steamed and also love baked oysters. I’ll bet the stew was great too!

 

[smokin peachey]

Happy birthday!

 

[KimberlyO]

What a great way to celebrate your friend and his daughter's birthday; a party with family, friends and some of their favorite foods! Nice oysters!

 

[bigfurmn]

Happy Birthday indeed. Looks like an amazing feast.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Looks great!! I used to eat clams and oysters raw.

Thanks Steve. When I go harvest oysters myself, I always take a knife so I can try them right there...fresh as anyone can get...

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

North east oysters are so good. Never tried steaming. Guess they be easy to open like that. I will have to try. That frogmore stew looks so good. I would be happy to sit down to that feast Charles!

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Great lookin' oysters! I grew up on Gulf of Mexico oysters, fresh and raw, grilled on the half-shell, or fried. They are more briny than East coast oysters. In the afternoon, my Grandmother would buy them off the boats along with 'bait shrimp' (heads-on, in the 26/30 range, packed in crushed ice) as some fisherman did not have a permit to sell seafood for consumption. I doubt those rules are broken these days.

Our oysters here are much more briny than these that I got from Virginia. Not real sure why, but I think the saltiness comes from water temp, amount of time under water in a 24 hour period, and how close to the ocean they are harvested. Growing up, I was always told that the best oysters are the ones right at the water's edge, or just below, at low tide...

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Man those are some huge oysters!! Lovecthem steamed and also love baked oysters. I’ll bet the stew was great too!

Thanks Jeff. It was all really good, but we haven't had oysters in awhile, so they were the stars of the show...

 

[Gonna Smoke]

North east oysters are so good. Never tried steaming. Guess they be easy to open like that. I will have to try. That frogmore stew looks so good. I would be happy to sit down to that feast Charles!

Thank you Brian! Give steamed oysters a try. We basically like them extremely lightly steamed...really only warmed up. Steamed too long and the meat shrivels up to nothing and all the liquid cooks out. If we still have to fight to get them open, then they are about right...

 

[tx smoker]

What a great gesture Charles. So good to have friends like you and you have friends that yu want to do things like this for. I gotta tell you though, if I had been there you'd have needed a second bushel of those oysters. Those things are huge and look amazing.

Robert

 

[gmc2003]

You nailed it Charles, everything looks fabulous.

Point for sure
Chris

 

[Gonna Smoke]

What a great gesture Charles. So good to have friends like you and you have friends that yu want to do things like this for. I gotta tell you though, if I had been there you'd have needed a second bushel of those oysters. Those things are huge and look amazing.

Robert

Thank you, Robert! You know it's all about family around here and we really don't have friends, they're all family. Oysters, and seafood in general, are one of the things almost everyone loves. I say almost because our nephew doesn't eat anything that swims or lives in the water... I'll be sure to grab an extra bushel when you come......

 

[Gonna Smoke]

You nailed it Charles, everything looks fabulous.

Point for sure
Chris

Thank you, Chris. I appreciate that!