Roasted Oysters With Country Bacon Food

ROASTED OYSTERS WITH GARLIC-PARSLEY BUTTER

Steps:

• Make the garlic-parsley butter: Puree the butter, parsley, shallots, lemon zest, roasted garlic and a little salt and pepper in a food processor until smooth.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Open the oysters with an oyster knife. Divide the oysters among small baking dishes lined with baguette slices. Place a heaping teaspoon of garlic-parsley butter on each oyster. Roast the oysters until the butter is melted, 8 to 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

OYSTERS 'N' BACON

Steps:

• Place bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until shrunken, but not crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain.
• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
• In a shallow baking dish, whisk together the sugar, soy sauce and garlic with a fork. Wrap each oyster with a piece of bacon, and secure with toothpicks. Place wrapped oysters into the dish with the sauce.
• Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until the sauce has thickened and bacon is nicely crisped at the edges.

OYSTER ROAST WITH BACON AND PARMESAN

Steps:

• Make the compound butter: Remove the inner stem of the chard leaves and roughly chop. In a skillet, heat two tablespoons of butter and saute the Swiss chard until wilted. Season with a pinch of salt. Set aside to cool. Finely chop the bacon and place in a bowl along with the butter. Add the lemon juice to the bacon/butter mixture. Finely chop the garlic and mix into the bacon/butter along with the Parmesan, thyme, and chives. Season with salt and pepper. Finely chop the chard and fold into the butter mixture. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Set aside. (To store, form into a log, wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator. Soften first before using on oysters).
• Shuck the oysters: Using an oyster knife, locate the "keyhole" in the top of the oyster. Stick the tip of the knife into the keyhole and wiggle it until until the top releases. Wedge your finger along the side of the oyster (it won't hurt!), just to open it enough to run the knife along the edge. (This will keep the oyster from puncturing as it's opened.) Shuck the oysters, leaving the connector muscle attached, so they stay in place for baking.
• Bake the oysters: Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Fill a deep cast iron skillet halfway with sea salt or rock salt and place in the oven to come up to temperature. Pull the heated rock salt dish from the oven. Carefully place the oysters on the salt and dollop with a generous amount of the compound butter. Place in the oven for about 6-8 minutes, until the butter melts and the oysters are slightly curled. Finish with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and serve right out of the hot casserole.

ROASTED OYSTERS WITH COUNTRY BACON

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a towel, grasp an oyster in the palm of your hand. Press the oyster, rounded side down, on a firm surface, still holding it with the towel. Shuck the oyster by wedging the tip of an oyster knife (regular knives are too thinbladed) between the halves of the shell, at the shell's narrowest end. When the knife tip is securely wedged, rotate the blade to pry open the shell. Slide the knife blade along the length of the shell to open completely. Remove the oyster from the shell and reserve, along with its juice. From each pair of oyster shells, save the one that is most concave on the inside, and discard the one that is flatter. Place the concave shells in a pan of cold water and scrub inside and out. Place the clean oyster shells on a cookie sheet and set aside.
• Dip the tomatoes briefly in boiling water to loosen the skins, then in ice water. Peel, cut in half, remove and discard the seeds and dice.
• Lay out the phyllo dough one sheet at a time on a clean work surface. Brush the sheet lightly with olive oil, sprinkle with coarse salt, crumble the sheet like a piece of newspaper and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown.
• Have the sauce ingredients measured and ready beside the stove. When you are ready to begin cooking the oysters, place the cookie sheet containing the oyster shells in a 350 degree oven. On the top of the stove, melt the butter in a hot saute pan until it begins to foam. Add the shallots, the oysters and their juice, and the white wine. Cook the oysters for 30 seconds, then add the heavy cream. Bring to a quick boil, then reduce to a simmer for just a minute more, or until the oysters' edges begin to curl. Add the tomato, tarragon, and bacon. Heat for another 30 seconds, then remove promptly from the heat.
• Remove the oyster shells from the oven and arrange six on each plate. Spoon an oyster into each shell and spoon a little of the sauce over each. Top each dish with top hat of crispy phyllo.

ROASTED OYSTERS WITH WARM BACON VINAIGRETTE

Steps:

• Preheat a wood-fired or regular oven to 400 degrees F. Fill a 14-inch cast-iron pan with the rock salt.
• Shuck the oysters, keeping them in their bottom shells, then lay them on the rock salt, using care to save as much of the oyster liquor as possible. Place the entire pan in the oven and cook until the oysters are just set, 5 to 6 minutes.
• Meanwhile, add the bacon to a medium cast-iron pan, then set over medium-high heat. Cook the bacon until the fat has rendered out and the bacon begins to crisp, about 5 minutes. Add the onions to the pan and turn the heat down to medium-low. Sweat the onions until they have begun to soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the mustard, then slowly add the vinegar, stirring. (You will want to stir and swirl the pan as you add the liquid, to help emulsify the mustard and vinegar into the bacon fat.) Add the watercress and stir the mixture to combine and wilt the cress.
• Remove the oysters from the oven. Evenly divide and top each oyster with the bacon vinaigrette.

OYSTER AND BACON STUFFING

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Spread out the bread on 2 baking sheets; bake until dried out, about 1 hour, rotating the baking sheets as needed.
• Increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until crisp, about 8 minutes. Remove 1/4 cup of the drippings, leaving about 1/2 cup in the pot. Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic and cook, stirring, until softened, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and add 1 1/2 cups stock. Add the marjoram and set aside.
• Whisk the remaining 1 1/2 cups stock and the eggs in a large bowl. Add the scallions, parsley, Old Bay, oysters with their liquor and the vegetable-bacon mixture. Add the bread and mix until most of the liquid is absorbed. Season with salt and pepper.
• Transfer the mixture to a 3-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with the parmesan and bake until browned on top, 30 to 40 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes before serving.

ROASTED OYSTERS

Steps:

• Melt the butter over medium heat in a small saucepan. Add the shallots and cook, stirring, until they are translucent and beginning to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the chardonnay, bring to a lively simmer, and reduce until only about 2 tablespoons of liquid remains. Add the cream and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and reduce to 2/3 cup. Remove from the heat, stir in the white pepper, and set aside.
• Preheat the oven broiler to 500 degrees F. Arrange the top oven rack so a roasting pan will fit below the heating element. Prepare appetizer plates by placing a bed of rock salt on each, to hold the oysters. Distribute the rock salt evenly between to roasting pans large enough to hold the oysters.
• If the fishmonger shucked your oysters, return the oysters to their cleaned shells one by one, and add about 1/2 teaspoon of the oyster liquid to each, nesting the shells carefully in the rock salt so the contents don't spill. Otherwise, arrange freshly shucked oysters in the rock salt-filled roasting pans, ensuring that their liquid doesn't spill.
• Spoon about 2 teaspoons of the shallot-cream mixture on top of each oyster. Coat each oyster well, without having the shell overflow with liquid. Put one roasting pan in the oven and broil just until the liquid bubbles and the oysters' edges begin to curl, about 3 minutes, watching closely to prevent burning. Repeat with the other roasting pan. Carefully lift 4 oysters in their shells onto each appetizer plate. Serve immediately.

BAKED OYSTERS WITH BACON

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 500°F.
• Make stuffing:
• Bring a 6- to 8-quart pot three-fourths full of water to a boil with kosher salt, then stir in spinach and cook 30 seconds. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a large bowl filled with ice and cold water to stop cooking. Drain spinach and squeeze dry, then finely chop.
• Wash leeks well in a bowl of cold water, then lift out and drain well.
• Heat oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté bacon, stirring, until golden and just cooked through (but not crisp), about 3 minutes. Transfer with slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. Add leeks, shallot, and garlic to fat in skillet and cook over low heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 8 minutes.
• Toss together leek mixture, spinach, bacon, bread crumbs, herbs, lemon zest and juice, sea salt, white pepper, nutmeg, and butter in a large bowl with a fork.
• Bake oysters:
• Spread 2 to 3 cups rock salt in each of 2 large shallow baking pans and nestle oysters (in shells) in it. Spoon a heaping tablespoon bread-crumb stuffing loosely on top of each oyster. Bake in batches in upper third of oven until golden, about 6 minutes.
• Serve warm oysters in shells on plates lined with rock salt.