Hama Hama® Oyster Blog

Oyster Stuffing at London Lennies:

London Lennies Shuck and Bake Oyster Stuffing Recipe

• 1 lb cubed bread, including crust
• 1 pint fresh raw oysters
• 4-8 tablespoons of butter
• 1 cup finely chopped celery
• 2 cup of chopped onions
• 1/2 cup of minced fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon minced oregano
• 1 tablespoon minced sage
• 1 tablespoon minced thyme
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 cup oyster juice from the freshly opened oysters (oyster broth)
• 2 eggs, well beaten (optional)

Preheat oven to 400F. Toast bread until golden brown on middle rack. Put bread pieces in bowl.

Meanwhile, heat butter until melted and foam subsides. Add onions and celery and cook until tender. (5 mins) Remove from heat and stir in spices.

Add bread crumbs and drained oysters. Toss well until stuffing is moist (but not packed together) and stir in eggs (optional).

Stuff into the turkey while moist.

* If cooked in casserole dish, place in 350F oven for 25-40minutes, or until heated through to form crust on the outsides

recipe by request.

This oyster stew is a family favorite… with both Adam and Helena claiming credit for it. Probably it was a joint creation.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 medium onion
• 2 to 3 potatoes
• 1 quart chicken stock (or enough to cover vegetables and make it soupy)
• 1 pint Hama Hama Oysters, drained (making this stew with any other brand of oyster is guaranteed to ensure failure)
• 1 tsp curry powder (or to taste)
• 1 tsp ground cumin (ditto above)
• 1 can unsweetened coconut milk
• salt and pepper

Procedure:

Chop the vegetables to desired size (we prefer large chunks for the stew), and simmer in chicken stock until almost tender. Add oysters and season with curry, cumin, salt and pepper. Bring back to a simmer, and cook until the oysters’ edges curl and they are plump and firm. (Depending on the size of the oysters, you may want to cut them in half.) Add coconut milk. Reheat but don’t boil. Taste for flavor and add more seasoning if necessary.

We’ve heard rumors and murmurings about oyster ice cream for several years. Apparently it’s big in Japan, and was popular with Dolley Madison (wife of President James).

But we tip our hats to Lorraine Eaton, a reporter with The Virginian-Pilot, for actually making the stuff. Lorraine made an oyster soup out of cream, oyster liquor, ham, flour, and onions, and then chilled it overnight and put it in an ice cream maker. She reports that it looked like coffee ice cream, but she wasn’t brave enough to taste it herself. Instead she fed it to her coworkers, who gave it mixed results.

Read Lorraine’s story and get the recipe here.

This tip is from a customer in the seafood store, who got it from Mo’s Seafood Restaurant in Newport, Oregon: Fill a tray with rock salt and put it on the barbecue, and then set the oysters on the tray to cook.

Apparently this ensures that the oysters stay moist, and don’t overcook. It sounds kinda hokey, and like a waste of good ice-cream salt, but we might just try it. And if anyone out there has ever heard of this, please let us know.

Also, store customer Rick says he tops his barbecued oysters with melted swiss cheese and tabasco. Customer Steve recommends adding a splash of beer to the oysters once they’ve opened up.

In light of the previous post exhorting everyone to cook all shellfish, we thought it appropriate to offer a guide to barbecuing oysters.

You need:

1. Barbecue. Or fire.
2. Oyster knife (or equivalent), plus gloves, hot pads, and/or tongs for handling hot shells.
3. Pot of melted butter and garlic, hot sauce, horseradish, lemon, etc.
4. Oysters. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could buy oyster clusters as opposed to oyster singles. They’re more difficult to barbecue than oyster singles, but a whole lot cheaper. We sell oyster clusters by the bushel in our retail store (they’re not available online) for a price so cheap we’re embarrassed to tell it to you. You need to pre-order the bushel of clusters… call 888-877-5844 to find out more or to place an order.

• Step 1: Place the oysters on the barbecue. If you’re barbecuing singles, be sure and place the oysters on the grill with the cupped-side down. (The cupped side of the oyster shell is also called the bottom shell).
• Normally, the oysters will cook open on their own, as in the picture above. Sometimes they’re a little trickier, and they cook without opening up. If the oysters sound hollow when you tap them with your knife, then they’re probably ready, and you can go ahead and pry them open with your knife.
• Step 2. When the oyster opens up, you can either A) sever the remaining muscles that connect the meat to the shell, and slide the oyster into your pot of melted butter, or B) remove the top shell, sever the bottom muscle, and leave the oyster unadorned in its bottom shell. At this point, we like to spoon a little of the butter/garlic sauce onto the oyster.

Warning: Oysters sometimes pop open violently as they cook, spitting out hot oyster liquid and bits of shell. To avoid injury, try to aim the fluted end of the oyster away from you, or just place a lid over the barbecue.

On Thursday, May 1st, the Martha Stewart Show featured guest chef Emeril Lagasse, who cooked up a fried oyster salad using Hama Hama oysters.

Watch the show, get the recipe.

Here are some of our favorite quotes from the show:

“We’re actually not using oysters from Louisiana today, we’re using oysters from the Pacific, from Washington State… just because when we tasted these—they’re called Hama Hama—and when we tasted these…” -Emeril

“Look how plump” -Emeril

“Oh so gorgeous!” -Martha

“Look how beautiful they look” -Emeril

“Oh my gosh” -Martha

“They smell like the sea; they smell like salt… they’re briny, and that’s exactly what you’re looking for” -Emeril

The image below is from TASTE WITH THE EYES, a beautiful and delicious food blog.

It’s a panko-encrusted Hama Hama oyster topped with cilantro, sliced serrano chiles, cabbage, and ají amarillo crema, and then wrapped in a homemade tortilla. Stop by the site for a description of how to make it and lots of other amazing food.

Larry from New Jersey had some clams, oysters, and smoked salmon sent to him as a birthday gift. We’d like to eat at Larry’s house some day; he sounds like someone who knows food. Here’s how he prepared the seafood:

The Manila clams were simplicity itself. I just rinsed them in a colander, and added them to some simmering tomato-basil spaghetti sauce. I have a very good Italian deli nearby, which provided the sauce, though supermarket sauce would have done. After I added the clams to the sauce, I covered the saucepan, and they opened within six minutes or so. Then I just served them over some thin spaghetti. Really good!

I served the oysters three different ways – raw, fried and broiled. They were wonderful raw, with a little lemon. To fry them, I rolled them in some Progresso Italian bread crumbs, adding some extra thyme, and sautéed them in some olive oil in a non-stick skillet, turning them once. They got nice and crunchy on the outside, but tender inside. To broil them, I just placed them in a little olive oil in a steel skillet, gave them a shake of paprika, and under the gas we go. They were done in less than five minutes. I let them cool a bit and served them over a green salad. Yummy!

I also enjoyed the natural smoked salmon. I put some in an omelet and had some over a salad a second day. Great stuff!

Thanks again for another stellar batch of oysters. They were fantastic as usual. I’m finding it very interesting how the oysters go through their seasonal cycles. Each month they are slightly different, and now that I’m endulging more often I can begin to tell the difference. In previous months, they seemed to have more liquor in them, clear liquid, silvery in color. As you mentioned in the card, they are more plump now, less liquor, a little more sweet. I’m going to try some of the larger ones for the BBQ as you suggested, later in the season.

Ingredients:

• Meat from one Dungeness crab, picked
• 1 cup bread crumbs, plus additional for coating
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• ¼ cup minced fresh parsley
• 1 large egg, blended
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp Spike seasoning
• ¼ tsp cayenne
• ¼ tsp dry mustard
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, blend together all ingredients except for the crabmeat. Then, once everything is mixed together, stir in the crab meat.

Shape into cakes—this should yield about 6 cakes—the cakes will be very soft. If you have time/energy to put the breadcrumbs into a food processor instead of just cutting them up into squares, it may make the crab cakes firmer.

As you form them, place the cakes on a bed of breadcrumbs and pat breadcrumbs over them. Let them stand for up to one hour in a refrigerator, loosely covered. (Another place to save time if you’re short on it.)

Saute the crab cakes in a mixture of butter and olive oil over moderately high heat for two or three minutes on a side, or until they are browned. Transfer them as they are done to a heated platter. Serve with lemon wedges.

NOTE: If you’re one of those people who are scared of mayonnaise, feel free to reduce the amount of called for in this recipe. This may also make the crab cakes hold together better. Let us know if you have any luck with this.

(Broccoli not included)