Butter and Brine

Oysters are fine enough jiggling there on the half shell, but Louisiana has its share of easy recipes that take the slimy bivalves and doozy them up. One Christmas, I served Rockefeller in all its Pernod, spinach and parmesan glory, but, man, was it a colossal pain. On the easier end are broiled classics like the bacon, Tabasco, ketchup combo called oysters Fitzpatrick, which you’ll find in Baton Rouge’s own River Roads Recipes, Vol. I, (the country’s best-selling community cookbook). Also fairly simple is Emeril Lagasse’s grilled oyster recipe found here, which I tested—and about died over—this weekend. You create a garlic-parmesan-parsley butter, freeze it, plop a slice atop the waiting erster, then grill him for 4-6 minutes. Thumbs up.

The recipe calls for oyster shells, but that shouldn’t be a deal killer if you don’t have a pile lying around the house. (I do have my own pile, geeky as that sounds, which I created one year after we smoked a sack. I cleaned and Cloroxed the hell out of the leftover half shells, which took forever, but has served me well. Those much smarter than I have discovered you can also buy them.) Anyway, I think a cast iron skillet would also work. The vessel just has to be able to go on grill grates.

Don’t forget the baguette. This is incredibly soppable.

Note: The pint of oysters I picked up from Tony’s had 18 oysters in it, shy of the amount called for in this recipe.