Asian-Inspired Oysters Rockefeller
This last Labor Day weekend, Alan and I decided to treat ourselves to a longer weekend by taking the Friday off. With the weather looking nice and hot, we took my dog and headed up to Tomales Bay to grab some fresh oysters! Normally, I head to Hog Island Oyster Company but it’s so hard to get picnic reservations since they took themselves off Yelp, so Tomales Bay was a great 2nd choice.
Funnily enough, Alan doesn’t like raw oysters, but I don’t really like cooked oysters (guess opposites do attract). I ended up shucking some oysters and scallops for myself anyway and they were DELICIOUS. So fresh and briny and plump 😋I did some extra nice plating because the nasturtiums (edible flowers) I’ve been growing have finally started to bloom in the last few days.
We also set up the grill in the backyard and enjoyed some hot links and fresh burgers. The burgers were topped with homegrown tomatoes from my Early Girl plant — did I mention that I’m basically a farmer now?
Alan tried grilling some oysters, but I just didn’t love them 😬so I stuck with my raw oysters. But after all that grilling, we were still left with over a dozen oysters that we didn’t know what to do with! Alan had a craving for some Oysters Rockefeller but we didn’t have any spinach in the house. That’s when he came up with the idea to use the sugar pea leaves (aka Chinese pea shoots) we had in the fridge — we normally only find this vegetable at the Asian market and eat it stir-fried with some sliced garlic.
Oysters covered with cheese, ready for the oven
The final result was actually SO amazing that I felt I had to share it on the blog with you. It’s not every day that you’ll find delicious, fresh oysters, but this is a great recipe to have on hand just in case. Plus, there’s a ton of cheese involved 😋
Asian-Inspired Oysters Rockefeller
Ingredients:
1 dozen shucked oysters on the half shell
⅔ cup chopped sugar pea leaves
¼ cup finely chopped onions
1½ tbsp minced garlic
½ cup grated parmesan
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp cooking oil of choice
Instructions:
Crumple up aluminum on a baking sheet to create ridges that will hold the oyster shells upright. You don’t want them tipping over or all the delicious juices will leak from the shell! Place the oyster shells on top of the sheet about an inch apart.
Saute your onions and garlic in a pan with the oil.
Once the pan starts smelling fragrant, add in the sugar pea leaves and stir until the leaves have wilted.
Sprinkle in a generous pinch of salt and toss once more before taking the pan off the heat.
Spoon the sugar pea leaves into each shell and generously top with the grated parmesan.
Turn on your broiler (500F) and place the sheet under for ~5 minutes or until the cheese has melted and crisped up, turning golden brown.
Enjoy immediately but carefully, the shells will be hot and the oyster juice will be boiling!
