Get em while ya can

I'm worried. It's a fear in my gut I have never felt before. It's a fear that I won't be able to fill my gut with Gulf Coast seafood in the near future.
I have just returned from my local seafood shack. Usually I am getting fried shrimp po boys. I have mentioned these $4.29 works of edible art on this blog more then once. Today I spent about $200 on fresh oysters and shrimp. The folks that run my local seafood shack are from Bayou La Batre , Alabama. They get their seafood as fresh as can be in landlocked Atlanta. The oysters are from East Point, Fl. The shrimp are Alabama wild shrimp.

Watching the talking heads you get no idea the extent of damage to expect from the oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico the other day. I expect the worst. I expect the gulf coast fresh seafood industry to disappear for 2 to three years.

The seafood I've been getting at my local seafood shack lately has been beautiful. The oysters, the shrimp and the blue crabs, all beautiful.

So I've been working on my Oysters Rockefeller recipe. I don't eat the raw oysters in Atlanta. If I buy them in the shell or at a oyster bar down on the coast I will eat dozens raw. Here in Atlanta I usually fry them. It's easy and most times I have put the fried oysters on a salad with a heavy duty dressing that goes well with both the oysters and the salad. Lately that's been Sriracha, a.k.a Rooster sauce and mayo. Just about equal amounts of each. Maybe a tad more mayo than Sriracha. It's good stuff.

Soooooo, I spotted the oysters when picking up a po boy. They were really fresh so I bought a pint and right away decided to do Rockefeller. Everybody like Oysters Rockefeller. I got a recipe off the Food network website. It's a good recipe because you don't have to be exact. I use vodka in the place of Pernod. I use a lot more cheese than called for. And different cheeses, not just the cheese this recipe calls for. Above is a photo Stacey took of some oysters we cooked. Her's a recipe on how ya do it. Really it's easy. Ya don't have to be exact and you can leave out or change the ingredients.
CHOW BABY!!

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs, Panko preferred
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 2 cups chopped fresh spinach
• 1/4 cup Pernod
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Dash red pepper sauce
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 tablespoon chopped chervil or parsley
• 2 dozen oysters, on the half shell
• Rock salt
• Lemon wedges, for garnish

Directions

Melt butter in a skillet. Saute the garlic for 2 minutes to infuse the butter. Place the bread crumbs in a mixing bowl and add half the garlic butter, set aside. To the remaining garlic butter in the skillet, add shallots and spinach, cook for 3 minutes until the spinach wilts. Deglaze the pan with Pernod. Season with salt and pepper, add a dash of red pepper sauce. Allow the mixture to cook down for a few minutes. Finish off the bread crumbs by mixing in olive oil, Parmesan and chervil, season with salt and pepper. Spoon 1 heaping teaspoon of the spinach mixture on each oyster followed by a spoonful of the bread crumb mixture. Sprinkle a baking pan amply with rock salt. Arrange the oysters in the salt to steady them. Bake in a preheated 450 degree F oven for 10 to 15 minutes until golden. Serve with lemon wedges