My husband's grandfather on his mother's side had a tradition of fried oysters for breakfast on Christmas morning. My husband loved this tradition and continued it as an adult, the only sibling in his family to carry it on. After we married, as a love gesture, I expanded the tradition to Thanksgiving breakfast as well. If you also had fried oysters for Thanksgiving breakfast, raise your hand! [I thought so, Smile] Our local stores carry oysters during the holidays because people put them in their turkey dressing. We don't do that. We use my Mother's recipe for white bread stuffing. This, of course, is not a foodie blog, but my husband asked me if I would blog about it.
Since there is just the two of us at this meal, two pints of oysters is good. Pacific Coast oysters are not the same as those grown in other locations by taste or size. They come in size grades, yearling, extra small, small, medium, large and extra large. This year we could only get extra smalls. There are approximately 18 extra smalls in a pint. Make sure you look at the packed by date as foul oysters can make you sick. I always look at the grocery store for Willapoint oysters grown in Washington state since that is where my husband calls home.
http://www.coastseafoods.com/shucked.html
On a visit, I remember driving by an oyster packing plant and seeing the piles of oyster shells on the site piled high -- many feet high. I see now where the shells are being used for decorative objects like lamps and mirrors frames.
Take one package of Nabisco Premium saltine crackers and crush them up in the Cuisinart with the metal blade.
If you don't have a Cuisinart machine, crush them up in a Ziploc or other plastic bag using a rolling pin.
Add fine ground pepper to taste to the crushed crumbs. He uses no other seasonings. Beat three eggs in a separate bowl. Some people add hot chili sauce to the egg mixture, but we do not. We do not add salt either.
Wash and drain the oysters.
Dip each oyster in the well beaten eggs.
Coat each oyster in the cracker crumbs.
Place them all on a cookie sheet.
Heat extra virgin olive oil in two pans. This will give them room to fry without touching each other so the hot oil can encircle the oyster. This is the rule for frying chicken as well.
Cook over medium high heat for a few minutes and turn when you can see the cracker crumbs getting golden brown.
Here they are brown on both sides.
A fish plate is in order, of course. This is Richard Ginori's Coquille pattern.
Dish them up and enjoy.
Serve them with chunky green tomato pickles.
My husband eats them with tomato catsup. Serve them with red grapefruit sections, scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls and tomato juice.
Ingredients:
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2 pints extra small oysters
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3 well beaten large eggs
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1 package saltine crackers crushed
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extra virgin olive oil for frying
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fine ground pepper to taste
All the best,
Summer
Photo Credits: Swede
