Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Oysters on the Half Shell and Grilled Hotdogs and Zucchini -- back to top
Meredith was here so we tried a bunch of new things for dinner. It was the first time I have ever grilled with charcoal (and I have barely grilled before) and it was my first time shucking oysters.
We bought chesapeake oysters at Whole Foods. We watched a few different videos on how to shuck them. We had a bit of trouble but for the most part, we were able to open them without spilling too much liquid and/or getting too many shells and sand in them. We served them on ice (or sorts) and with cocktail sauce and lemon. We ate them raw and survived to tell the tale. Pictured are only 6 but we bought 12.
And then there was the grilling! I have read a few things on how to work with charcoal but we decided to play it safe and cook hotdogs since they are safe and already cooked.
Well, the grill started out well. It lite like I had expected though I guess it took a bit long. I dumped the coal and started cooking. When I flipped them, they were cooked but the grill felt kind of cool. Everything was cooked well, but the next batch of hot dogs didn't work too well. I had to cook them on the grill pan. I do not know why it went out so quickly but again, thankfully they were precooked so there was no real risk.
As you can see from the picture, we also tried spiral cutting them. See this video for more info on them. However, the hotdogs were really thin since they were the really low fat. I used a steeper angle to not go as deep.
Oh, as we split a french baguette lengthwise to have good bread with them.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 2191, 2012-08-10_194356
Oysters, Tuna Tataki and Broccoli soup -- back to top
This was Meredith and my 4 year anniversary dinner. We had a big lunch, so we wanted something fancy but light. We started with some North Carolina Oysters. They were very good, or as good as oysters ever are. (I think I like the high-scale and fancy nature of them more than the oysters themselves). It was easier to open them than I remember.
The other part was tuna tataki. We used the recipe that Meredith had used in the past (it is below). We had a big piece of tuna and cut it, though we cut it wrong. We should have cut against the grain so that we could more easily slice it along the grain later. Anyway, it was very good. Meredith said it was on par with Wegmans which is a compliment (though she said it wasn't as good as last time she made it). It is certainly very easy. the sauce (which was very good) was more work than the tuna itself. Just goes to show how super simple it was.
We also made roasted broccoli soup like last time. I used homemade broth from a while ago (but I cannot seem to find the post). I needed to add salt to it,but I added too much. It wasn't so salty you couldn't eat it, but still too much. Luckily, it was really thick so I can add more water later.
(2014-01-07 Note. This was added to My Recipe Book)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 3140, 2013-02-08_180553
Pizza and Oysters on the Half Shell -- back to top
Meredith and I had Wes and Rebecca over and we did a make your own pizza with oysters on the half shell as an appetizer. We bought 2 dozen (though they gave us more) and it was a nice sized appetizer. We all took turns shucking them and did a pretty good job with most. We served them with the regular stuff: tabasco, cocktail sauce, other hot sauces, lemon slices, etc.
For the pizza, we had frozen, leftover Trader Joes dough from a party. We defrosted that along with the leftover cheese. The sauce and all of the toppings were purchased though. The dough is a bit strange. It stretches really, really well but it doesn't really rise at all before the oven. Also, I cooked it at 400 instead of 350. Each pizza was made from half a 16oz dough ball.
Everyone got to make two pizzas however I only took pictures of the first. (and most saved the second for later)
They are:
Justin's first (Pictured lower left):
Justin's Second:
Meredith's First (Picture, top left). Tex-Mex style
Meredith's Second
Wes's First (Pictured, bottom right)
Wes's Second:
Rebecca's First (Pictured, top right)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6257, 2013-07-06_134033
Fresh + Local Steamed Oysters with Broccoli and Sausage -- back to top
We made dinner while on vacation in Charleston SC. The main part of the meal was oysters. We bought oysters that are about as fresh and local as you can get. When we bought them, the guy showed us the boat he used to harvest them that morning! However, because of the weather conditions, he said they are not yet safe to eat raw. So, we steamed them!
It actually worked out well that we had to steam them because they were in all different shapes and sizes which would have been extremely difficult to separate, shuck, and eat without losing all the good parts.
We steamed them for about 5-10 minutes. To add a bit of flavor, we put a chicken bouillon cube in the steaming water. Most opened fine. There were a few clumps here and there that didn't open but when we pried them open, it seemed as if they were just cooked less and ate them anyway (hopefully we won't get sick!).
While less fancy feeling than eating them raw, we were more able to discern the flavor profile. We still served them with the normal sauces, etc
We also had steamed broccoli and a few links of chicken sausage (not pictured) since we didn't know how filling the oysters would end up being.
Note for the future: be careful cleaning the oysters. I got two cuts on my fingers from the sharp shells!
It was a fun meal. Certainly fresh and local!
Below is a picture of the boat:
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6830, 2013-10-27_103706