Smokin’

Many weeks ago we decided we would smoke some oysters before the season ended (you know the old saying only eat oysters in a month with a R in it). On Friday, the better-half bought two dozen oysters from the local seafood shack and I grabbed an impossibly huge piece of salmon at the grocery store on the way home. We wanted shuckable oysters so hence the reason for the seafood shack. I think in the next go around he’ll get all the fish at the shack because he reported how much was available.

Yesterday morning, I got up and rubbed a mixture of brown sugar, kosher salt, dried dill, fresh dill and pepper on the salmon. We were supposed to do it the night before and not use any fresh dill but them’s the breaks. Since we didn’t start the charcoal for the smoker until 7pm last night, I figured the fish had plenty of time to soak up the flavor. And, since the fish was awesome I suggest you do whatever you want as well.

We shucked the oysters and the recipe called for saving some of the shells to serve on the half-shell. We were really tired and the shells were barnacled to the hilt so we skipped cleaning the shells and just smoked them in a pie pan (over a cake pan filled with ice). The recipe called for putting the oysters on the half-shell on a rack over a pan of ice.

The oysters marinated in a mix of olive oil, black pepper, minced garlic, lemon juice and their own juices. The mix was supposed to include clam juice but that’s not something we have in the pantry so I subbed water. The oysters were huge, plump, tender and highly flavored. The marinade was boiled and then we used it at the table.

Dinner was very good. The oysters were gone in a flash and the leftover salmon will be turned into cakes later. The recipes for both of these dishes are in the highly recommended book “Smoke and Spice” by Cheryl and Bill Jamison.