Oysters: Two Ways

Four months later I return to blog about medical-related-food.....Christmas is a time of bounty with gifts from neighbors, and if you're my father, gifts from patients. He receives lovely gifts like delicious baked goods, jams, and wine, but some food gifts are really special like a bucket of oysters! I spent my early childhood near the South Texas coast and grew up eating oysters in all their forms. If you love oysters like my family the indispensable tool for their preparation is a small fryer or as it is known in our house the "FryDaddy." Tonight we had so many oysters that we prepared them two ways, fried and scalloped, and served the oysters with a green salad.

 Scalloped Oysters
(From Rockport Collection: Fish, Game, Fine Art, a copy of this book was given to my parents when they bought a house in Rockport, TX)

Ingredients:
2 cups of oysters, drained
8 tbs butter
1 1/2 cup of Italian bread crumbs
1 tbs of chopped chives, sprig of Oregano
juice from one lemon
3 tbs Parmesan cheese mixed with 1 tbs bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F.
2. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter. In a bowl, coat the crumbs with butter until a paste is formed.
Spread a half inch thick layer on the bottom of a flat baking dish. Arrange the oysters over the crumbs.
3. Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter in a glass measuring cup. Combine and mix the melted butter, lemon juice, chives, oregano, salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the oysters, then sprinkle the oysters with Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs.
4. Bake the gratin for 30 minutes until it is brown and bubbling at the edges.

Fried Oysters:
Oysters drained and dried until damp
Zatarain's garlic fish fry powder
cayenne pepper
bottle of vegetable oil
small fryer

1. Heat the oil in the fryer. 
2. Pour the fry powder in a plastic bag, spike it with cayenne pepper and mix well.  Dredge oysters through the batter and lay them out on a cookie sheet. Put the coated oysters in the freezer until you are ready to fry.
3. Fry the oysters and pull them out of the fryer when they float to the top.
4. Serve the oysters with tartar sauce, ketchup, or salsa golf (which is Argentinian secret sauce made of mayonnaise and ketchup)