One charmed fall weekend Jody and I were asked to judge the oyster shucking competition at the annual Wellfleet OysterFest. A free weekend in Wellfleet. Close proximity to more straight-from-the-ocean bivalves than I could ever reasonably consider eating. Bring it on. But watching pros shuck oysters was a revelation, like sitting in the passenger seat of a professional race car while rocketing around a track at 185 mph., inspiring equal parts terror and admiration. The goal was to shuck a couple dozen oysters as fast as possible. Winning time was a bit under two minutes – that is, an oyster every five seconds. Chipped shells, mangled oysters, debris and, oh yes, the occasional splash of blood, were all penalized. Talking with some of the competitors afterward, I heard one story after another of inattentive shuckers putting the the blade of an oyster knife through a palm or the base of a thumb. Haha. And that’s the rub, isn’t it? As someone who has shucked a fair number of oysters in his life, I still take a deep breath before I do it, I make damn sure I’m paying attention*, and I never ever hold the oyster in my hand–I pin it to a hard surface with one hand and attack the hinge with the other. But you don’t have to do this. We’re offering you a tasty alternative this week that will allow you to skip the knife-and-shell business altogether: Grilled Oysters with Wasabi Mayo.
As a recent presidential candidate might have said, had he been a cook, which seems doubtful: Grilled oysters self-open.
No blunt knives, no protective gloves, no trip to the ER. This is so easy it almost doesn’t qualify as a recipe. You mix the wasabi powder and vinegar together, whisk them into an egg yolk, then proceed as though making regular mayonnaise. You grill the oysters – remember, they open themselves – you save the juices. A tablespoon of their juices finds itself whisked into the mayo. Throw some crusty bread on the grill as an accompaniment, and you’re done.
Wait–a single dissident hand is waving from the back of the room: Aren’t we supposed to avoid eating oysters in months without an R?
Short answer: No. Longer short answer: Not any more. Wild oysters spawn in the summer months when the water is warm. This can leave their flesh flabbier than usual, their taste not as sharp or sweet. Oysters in warm-water environments spawn all year round, which perhaps explains why some people prefer cold-water shellfish. Today many oysters are farmed, and they’re quite edible during warm months. Some of them are even bred to be sterile, which eliminates the flabbiness issue. Of course, refrigeration is also a greater concern during warm weather and before the advent of modern refrigeration not eating oysters during the summer was driven as much by the fear of encountering a spoiled piece of shellfish as it was by perceived differences in flavor. With refrigerated trucks and cold-water holding tanks this isn’t the risk it once was. By the way, an oyster that might be flabby when raw, firms right up when grilled.
This recipe is sized to give four people a half dozen oysters each. Add more if you wish–there’s more than enough mayo. Use leftover wasabi mayo as you would any other homemade mayonnaise (hint: crab or tuna salad, chilled poached asparagus spears). In the unlikely event you have leftover oysters, refrigerate them (unless they’ve been sitting in the sun for an hour). The next morning, sauté them in butter, then set the pan aside. Start a two-egg omelette. When the eggs are still runny, add the oysters. Flip the omelette closed. Serve with a dollop of wasabi mayo on top. Hello, breakfast!
One last tip, we don’t cook with charcoal briquettes. They’re usually permeated with a petroleum byproduct. Instead, we rely on lump charcoal, also called charwood, which can contribute a hint of genuine wood smoke to whatever you’re cooking. Gas is also fine. Charwod is a bit more expensive than the blue and white bags, but it burns hotter and faster. In our opinion it’s definitely superior to the other stuff. Enjoy. Ken
P.S. Over two days at OysterFest I ate six dozen oysters, a feat I’ve not repeated since, to the relief of our teenage daughter.
Grilled Oysters with Wasabi Mayo
Serves 4
Ingredients for wasabi mayo:
- 2 tablespoons wasabi powder
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- ¾ cup canola oil
- 1 teaspoon finely grated garlic
- 1 teaspoon finely grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon minced shallots
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
Directions for mayo:
- Mix the wasabi powder and vinegar together in a small bowl until smooth. Separate the yolk and white of the egg. Reserve the white for another use. Add the yolk to a bowl with a teaspoon of water and whisk until until foamy. Add the wasabi and whisk until it’s completely incorporated.
- Start adding the canola oil a drop at a time, whisking as you go. Make sure the previous drop is completely incorporated before adding the next. When you’ve whisked about ¼ cup of canola oil into the yolk you can speed things up by dribbling the oil into the emulsion in a very thin stream. Resist the urge to go fast. When you’ve finished with the canola oil, the emulsion should be very thick–you’re going to thin it later with oyster juice. Add the remaining ingredients. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding vinegar and salt if necessary. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Ingredients for oysters:
- 2 dozen oysters, scrubbed
- 1 cup very thick wasabi mayonnaise (recipe above)
- 2 tablespoons chopped herbs–basil, cilantro and mint
- 1 loaf crusty rustic bread
Directions for oysters:
- Preheat a grill.
- Set the oysters on the grill, bowl side down, flat side up. When the top shell just pops, remove the oyster from the grill, careful not to spill the juices. Hold the oyster with an oven mitt, potholder or folded towel. Tilt the oyster over a bowl to catch the juice, then run the blade of a knife between the oyster and the curved part of the shell. This will still leave the oyster attached to the flat part of the shell. Discard the empty shell. Slip a knife between the oyster and the flat shell to cut the muscle attaching the oyster to the shell, but leave the oyster sitting on the shell. Arrange on a platter.
- Pour a tablespoon of accumulated juices through a strainer into the thick mayonnaise and stir to combine.
- Just before serving, split the loaf of bread and put it on the grill just long enough to toast the surfaces. Don’t walk away. Walking away from bread on a grill all but guarantees the bread will burn. Remove the grilled bread. Brush with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Or not. Put a spoonful of mayonnaise on each oyster, sprinkle with chopped herbs and serve with grilled bread.
Jody Notes:
Not much to report except, yum. That’s what this is. When you stack the oysters on the grilled bread it’s like eating an open faced po’boy, but lighter. I know I would love it with some pikliz.
Check out the groovy whisk Ken got. It was really fun to use and reminded me of the little gift piles of multicolored wires we’d find in front of our house when I was a girl after the telephone guys had been working on the telephone pole. An obsolete image these days.
Click on something to see it with a little more detail. Left and right arrow keys will move you through the photos.
Copyright Notice:
All photos ©Ken Rivard. We’re fine with people using a photo or two referencing a post, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ken Rivard and Jody Adams, and the material links back to the original post. However, there’s a special circle in hell for people who copy my photos and represent them as their own, especially at the head of their own recipes.
The Garum Factory 
Two of my favorite flavors combined! Fully intend to try this. I envisage Wasabi Oyster Heaven with a bottle of Rein Reasling.
I don’t know Rein Riesling, but it sounds like a reasonable proposition, especially if your weather has been anything like ours of late. Thanks. Ken
I’ll go with a Gewertz or Viognier, definitely adding this to the plan tomorrow eve! I love these posts coming out on Fridays
I like crisp and dry with oysters, especially with a rich condiment like mayo. Ordinarily Sancerre might do the trick, but I’d also consider a good IPA. Ken
Grilling oysters is one of my new favorite things to do…there is an oyster farm just off our beach in Brewster (farmed bythe guy who also put in my AC) so I get them straight from the pens. Definitely will try the wasabi mayo!! Great pics !!!! BA
WAY easier than opening them with an oyster knife. And then there’s all that wasabi mayo… Ken
Looks and sounds delicious. I would like to order 5 dozen for a dinner at the Cape on Saturday August 3rd.
Are you sure you don’t mean lunch? I think that’s when the PanMass Challenge support team meets, isn’t it? Ken
Hadn’t thought of that…… Make it 6 dozen.
Ha!
This summer has been very hectic and I now know the perfect remedy. I can’t believe we, here in cold water shellfish land, haven’t had any grilled oysters yet. I marvel that in your posts you somehow know what we should be eating, even before we’ve realized it ourselves. Could be an interesting side business – food therapy. I did take a batch of pikliz to the Oregon coast. I am eternally grateful that Garum Factory introduced me to its tangy, crunchy goodness.
Dukkah, pikliz, preserved lemons, Vietnamese dipping sauce – four things that NEVER leave our fridge. :-) That’s great about the pikliz. Every once in awhile I run into someone Haitian and when I tell them that I have a giant container of pikliz in my fridge they fall apart laughing. I’m glad the oysters work for you. They were a kind of a revelation for me, especially since they don’t really cook very much, assuming you’re vigilant. Thanks for the generous comment. Ken
I should add that usually grilled oysters are a summer staple for us, much like the things you mentioned are always in your fridge. The wasabi mayo is new. So after I read your post, I texted Jeff and said “grilled oysters tonight with wasabi mayo.” We both feel the summer righted itself after that declaration. It’s on the menu tonight. Great good, real life indeed. Thanks for the reminder that the two can always go hand- in-hand; in this case, with very little effort.
:-)
well oysters aren’t my thing, but I would probably give them a try if they were prepared like this.
When they first pop open they’re still relatively raw, but if you leave them on a bit longer (emphasis on BIT) they’ll firm up as they cook. Don’t leave them on for more than a minute or two after they pop open or they’ll get overdone. Ken
Cameron and I had grilled oysters for the first time last summer. AMAZING. I suspect these wouldn’t be as good on a stove-top grill pan.
Grill pan won’t work, but you can steam them in 1/2 inch of water. They’ll take 5 – 7 minutes, depending on their size. Bear in mind that just like on the grill, the instant they “pop,” they’re still relatively raw inside. If you want them a bit more done than that, leave them in steaming pan a wee bit longer. Ken
Thanks, Ken. Sound advice. Now to find some oysters in Denver. :)
Prairie oysters. :-) Ken
en principe je n’aime pas les huîtres, car on les mange principalement quand elles sont crues, mais cette recette pourrait bien me faire changer d’avis ! ;)
Dans ce cas la, il faut les laisser un or deux minutes encore sur la grille parce que aussi tôt qu’ils commencent à ouvrir ils sont encore plus où moins crus. Deux minutes de plus (et puis certainment if faut goûter un or deux, seulement pour être sûr qu’ils sont prêts, avant les servir, :) ) Ken
merci pour l’astuce ! :)
I’ve got sort of a love/hate relationship with oysters, but those look terrific. And wow: some whisk!
Hi, Michelle–Love/hate? Did you get sick from them once? Or is it just the rawness. I once got neurotoxin poisoning from a Gulf oyster, which turned out to be okay, because I was afraid that in fact I’d developed a shellfish allergy that would take them off my menu forever. Everybody likes that whisk! Ken
You got it. In Paris. I’ll never forgot how sick I was. And from a lovely Jerusalem artichoke soup with tiny little nearly raw oysters floating in it. (Steve loathes them, so he didn’t try it. Lucky guy.) I’ve never had the great love that others in my family do for the raw ones, but I do like them cooked.
Oh man, those look so delicious! and, I love the groovy whisk.
I’m suck a sucker for color. Anything to keep things visually interesting. (And the oysters are tasty.) Ken
Are you Rembrandt by any chance? The colours and shadows in the photos, particularly of the oysters themselves leads me to this conclusion. Not sure about a competition to shuck as many oysters as possible – quite nauseating as an idea, no? – but lovely, gorgeous recipe. And yes, I too like the whisk. Sophie
Thank you, Sophie. These were fun to photograph–and the photographer and his daughter ate well after the session, with enough leftover for an oyster omelette the next morning with a dollop of wasabi mayo on top. Ken
Wow… great photos Jody & Ken.
I love miso mayo and must give a nice flavor to oysters. Six dozens of oysters…thats a lot Ken and in Madrid that would mean a lot of money…¡¡Que envidia!!
Thank you. It means a lot of money here too, although my wife’s restaurant serves oysters for $1 each on Monday evenings in the restaurant bar. Ken
I have to go and visit you on Mondays hehehe…
Pingback: WORDPRESS FAMILY AWARD … | A FRESH START
Stunning website, beautiful shots and great writing, keep up the amazing work. Come have a little read of mine if you have time. Best, Doug
Thanks for the generous comment, Doug. I’ll stop by. Ken
Reblogged this on The Serving Wench and commented:
This looks amazing! Check out this other food blog The Garum Factory. The photography and recipes are an inspiration.
Thank you! Ken
No Thank you! It looks amazing :)
These look absolutely amazing and I am very excited to try them! Your post was super informative about the oyster and I walked away a little more educated. I look forward to checking back in and following your blog.
Thanks. Grilling oysters was a revelation to me when I first saw it, but Southern friends say it’s quite common where they come from. Ken
Love all your photos, they are stunningly attractive, thanks for sharing :)
Thanks, Ken. They’re supposed to make you hungry. :-) Ken