Our Texas dinners

We've had several wonderful dinners, and I thought I would share some of them with you for ideas (and compliments, if you're so inclined. )

Pecan encrusted baked spotted seatrout:



Me shucking the dinner:


And the results (which we grilled):


Grilled quail (from a local guy) wrapped in bacon and of course oysters:


Tonight's dinner, which was sauteed oysters in garlic/butter/habanero/parmesan/spinach sauce:

I"ve been making salsa, from fresh tomato salsa for our fajitas, to mango salsa to serve with fish and shrimp.

Here is fresh grilled Gulf shrimp with my mango salsa:
(Bob eats wild rice, which we harvested back in September up north):

We've had some raw oysters, grilled oysters, fried oysters (no picture though!) sauteed oysters, and we're going to be doing jumbalaya with shrimp and some oysters.

It's supposed to be in the 80s tomorrow, so no oyster stew! But I'd love more ideas for some of the oysters we have left. We split a sack with a friend, and there are about 350 medium oysters left so we have roughly 150 oysters still in the shell, and about 25 shucked in their own brine in the fridge.

Here's my and my friend shucking a bunch (we ate those fried- dozens of them!):



Our share of the oysters is all in the one fridge. Here's half of my fridge, with half of the oysters of ours:



Tomorrow is their day to cook, and she tells me it's oysters.

That looks delicious! I just ate a shrimp enchilada with a black bean salsa that I thought was the bomb but your pics make me hungry again!
Prost!

Guess what? Oysters tonight, on the grill! I think some lemon and hot sauce would be extremely good on them, so that's the plan!

I had a michelada today. It was hot, and it went down very good. I don't drink them often, but in the hot sun it was great.

For the second year in a row, I am so jealous you have somewhere warm to go in the winter. Having said that....looks delicious.

Bubba: “Anyway, like I was sayin', oysta is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, oysta-kabobs, oysta creole, oysta gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple oystas, lemon oystas, coconut oystas, pepper oystas, oysta soup, oysta stew, oysta salad, oystas and potatoes, oysta burger, oysta sandwich. That- that's about it. “

I mean this in the nicest way possible, Yooper: I hate you.

Yooper said:

Guess what? Oysters tonight, on the grill! I think some lemon and hot sauce would be extremely good on them, so that's the plan!

I had a michelada today. It was hot, and it went down very good. I don't drink them often, but in the hot sun it was great.

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No need to waste your time shucking them, if they are fresh/alive the will pop open when done. Damn I miss the days of living in the FL panhandle and getting good fresh (and cheap) oysters. They want 1.00 each or more here in Denver, and they are tasteless east coast oysters, not good salty Gulf ones

You harvested rice? That's not a usual home garden endeavor.

Yoop, I don't have any oyster recipes that you don't already have access to; but I just gotta say: Your Texas diners look & sound AWESOME!"

Just a thought here, but what about duck, stuffed with some sort of stuffing that has oysters in it? I know you don't eat many carbs, but do you eat some once in a while? If not, maybe oysters, assorted mushrooms, a little dark sesame oil, some shrimp & pecans, maybe with a handful of crumbled bacon, all mixed up & stuffed inside a tasty duck. That's all I got, maybe you'll find it useful. In the immortal words of Julia Child: "Bon appetit."
Regards, GF.

AZ_IPA said:

I mean this in the nicest way possible, Yooper: I hate you.

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Well, we do have an extra bedroom or two! So you'd just take up one of them, and we'd cook for for you. So you can still hate me, but hate me from here.

Zuljin said:

You harvested rice? That's not a usual home garden endeavor.

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It's wild rice! We harvest it the way the native Americans have done for hundreds of years- by canoe, by hand. It's a lot of work, but we do it every fall. I don't eat much of it at all, but Bob does and friends and guests love it!

gratus fermentatio said:

Yoop, I don't have any oyster recipes that you don't already have access to; but I just gotta say: Your Texas diners look & sound AWESOME!"

Just a thought here, but what about duck, stuffed with some sort of stuffing that has oysters in it? I know you don't eat many carbs, but do you eat some once in a while? If not, maybe oysters, assorted mushrooms, a little dark sesame oil, some shrimp & pecans, maybe with a handful of crumbled bacon, all mixed up & stuffed inside a tasty duck. That's all I got, maybe you'll find it useful. In the immortal words of Julia Child: "Bon appetit."
Regards, GF.

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I don't have any duck- but I do happen to have a pheasant! I think maybe we could do your idea with the pheasant, and it would be great. That's an awesome idea!

Sigh......this all makes me want to go spend another week in Corpus

I am so hungry all of a sudden.

We had a late lunch today. I was hungry, so I grabbed my oyster knife and got busy!

I used a corn flour coating, with ground dried red peppers, and pan fried them in tallow from grass-fed beef.

Bob got out some soft corn tortillas, some freshly made salsa from earlier, and some sour cream and tomatoes. He finished it off with a big squeeze of lime.

We had some oyster tacos (I ate carbs for THIS meal!):




This was probably my favorite lunch in a long, long time. The flavor combo was just perfect!

That all looks so great! I love food, maybe more than beer?

I love raw oysters. Maine has some great cold water varieties. My favorite is the Glidden Point oyster from Edgecomb, ME. I prefer the big honkin size ones with lemon and tobasco, although I do love the taste of good cocktail sauce.

We are also big into whole belly clams which are like Ipswitch clams or steamers. These are often eaten with some melted butter, but my favorite is the labor of love to shuck them and deep fry with a dusting of corn flour like you did with oysters.

You could try an oyster and shrimp boudin sausage. Or oyster's Rockefeller.

This reminds me of time spent in Port St. Joe and Appalachicola. I once bought a sack of oysters from a little joint. I assumed a sack would have a few dozen for the lofty price of $17. I was astounded to see a huge burlap sack filled to near bursting. Those oysters made it back to Ohio and we ate off of them for a week.