Quick Grill, Quick Reminder

I had a lot of work to do tonight, wanted something interesting that I wasn't confident The Bride would enjoy, and it needed to be quick.  Enter the Grilled Oysters With Sriracha on page 71!  A trip to Findlay provided me with what I needed, and the prep was quick.

 I scrubbed them down as best as I could to remove any loose sediment. 

 I made the executive decision to use Old Faithful instead of The Forge because this was supposed to be a grill time of only about five or six minutes, and it wasn't worth the amount of charcoal required to get the direct high heat that Weber prescribed.  Granted, Old Faithful doesn't get nearly as hot as The Forge, but it would be fine for what I needed.

 After five minutes, I pulled them off, and did my best to open the oysters.  Never in my life have I tried to shuck an oyster, and after today I'm convinced that I'll never win any of those speed contests that I've seen on TV.  Without an oyster knife on hand, I found that the best tool in my kitchen was the bottle opener.

 This worked pretty well.  I used the sharp pointed end to force my way into the shell, and then the lever part to open it up the rest of the way.  As I was working my way through the oysters, I came across one that was really foamy inside.

I'd never seen this before, and honestly didn't know what to make of it, so I threw it away.  I figured that I had paid sixty cents for it, and the repercussions from the risk eating a foamy oyster weren't worth sixty cents.   From there I used a paring knife to separate the oyster meat from the shell, and then topped the good ones with the Sriracha sauce, put them back on the grill, and about a minute later they were ready!

Scrubbing them well earlier was a big help.  The best way to eat the oysters was to slurp them out of their shell. Without the scrubbing, you might get a fair amount of sediment while slurping.

This was a lot of fun.  While I've had oysters before (the best ever were at my sister's wedding), I've never actually done the prep for myself.  It was a cool and easy learning experience that gave me a lot of confidence for future sessions.  The recipe is delicious, but then again, I've enjoyed Sriracha sauce for many years now.  I didn't have to buy any for this recipe because it's always in my fridge.  I highly recommend it for anyone who likes a good chile sauce.  

On another note...only ONE haiku?  You have until Sunday!  It's a free $35 shopping spree, all for putting together only seventeen syllables!