This is a something I enjoyed during the holidays when visiting my New Orleans side of the family. It is a very New Orleans dish. I always believed no other city does more with oysters than New Orleans. Thankfully, I still live close enough to home so I can pretty much get anything I would get from Louisiana.
We got oysters, green onions, yellow onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic and flat leaf parsley. A good pinch of Thyme (fresh is fine too), and a smidge of oregano.
Of course the french bread. This is one thing I cannot get outside of the Big Easy: New Orleans French Bread. But I can get something that will work. Get it a couple days ahead of time so it gets stale. Then I cube it up (an electric knife makes pretty quick work of it) and dry it out some more in the oven at about 225*. Careful not to toast the bread. That is not the flavor we are going for.
Of course bacon and a good stick of butter is always a good start:
Then I poach the oysters just a bit in the butter and a little of the oyster liquor. THis makes them easy to cut up. Super important: DO NOT LOSE OR WASTE OR DISCARD ONE BIT OF THE OYSTER LIQUOR. This is vital to that oyster flavor infusing our dressing.
Oysters all chopped up:
Saute up the veggies. I put 2 bunches of flat leaf parsley total in this dish.
Once the veggies have gotten good and soft, add some stock and the bacon and the oyster liquor THAT YOU SAVED and bring that to a boil. Make sure your Thyme is in there and let it simmer for 10-15 mins. This will make a good stock. At this time add your salt/seasoning to taste. You want it just slightly salty since this will all get soaked up by the bread and turn out just right.
After a good 10-15 mins of simmering, cut the heat off and add the chopped oysters and start adding some of the cubed, dried french bread.
Stir it around gently, and keep adding a little at a time until it starts to look like dressing. Now some folks like their dressing a little mushy, and thats great, but I always make mine with the cubes of bread and not use any of the crumbs. This yields a different texture and some folks like a little of both. Essentially, using crumbs is more of a mushy consistency and using cubes makes it more "fluffy", not that it is really that fluffy.
I leave it somewhat wet since we are going to put it in a pan and into the oven for a bit.
Not the fanciest pan, but hey it works all the same. Into the oven at 350 for about a half hour.
I usually cover with foil for the first 10-15 mins then remove for 15 or so and let the top get golden brown like so:
We got oysters, green onions, yellow onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic and flat leaf parsley. A good pinch of Thyme (fresh is fine too), and a smidge of oregano.
Of course the french bread. This is one thing I cannot get outside of the Big Easy: New Orleans French Bread. But I can get something that will work. Get it a couple days ahead of time so it gets stale. Then I cube it up (an electric knife makes pretty quick work of it) and dry it out some more in the oven at about 225*. Careful not to toast the bread. That is not the flavor we are going for.
Of course bacon and a good stick of butter is always a good start:
Then I poach the oysters just a bit in the butter and a little of the oyster liquor. THis makes them easy to cut up. Super important: DO NOT LOSE OR WASTE OR DISCARD ONE BIT OF THE OYSTER LIQUOR. This is vital to that oyster flavor infusing our dressing.
Oysters all chopped up:
Saute up the veggies. I put 2 bunches of flat leaf parsley total in this dish.
Once the veggies have gotten good and soft, add some stock and the bacon and the oyster liquor THAT YOU SAVED and bring that to a boil. Make sure your Thyme is in there and let it simmer for 10-15 mins. This will make a good stock. At this time add your salt/seasoning to taste. You want it just slightly salty since this will all get soaked up by the bread and turn out just right.
After a good 10-15 mins of simmering, cut the heat off and add the chopped oysters and start adding some of the cubed, dried french bread.
Stir it around gently, and keep adding a little at a time until it starts to look like dressing. Now some folks like their dressing a little mushy, and thats great, but I always make mine with the cubes of bread and not use any of the crumbs. This yields a different texture and some folks like a little of both. Essentially, using crumbs is more of a mushy consistency and using cubes makes it more "fluffy", not that it is really that fluffy.
I leave it somewhat wet since we are going to put it in a pan and into the oven for a bit.
Not the fanciest pan, but hey it works all the same. Into the oven at 350 for about a half hour.
I usually cover with foil for the first 10-15 mins then remove for 15 or so and let the top get golden brown like so:
