Oysters Rockefeller

I've been craving these since I left Arkansas three years ago! For some reason, even though there are many different kinds of oysters lying in waters just off the East Coast, restaurants seem to ignore this delicacy. Well, I for one will ignore it no longer! This past weekend I picked up a pint of freshly shucked oysters from the local farmers market. These were beautiful oysters, freshly plucked from the Chesapeake by Metompkin Bay Seafood in Crisfield, MD.

Ingredients:
18-24 oysters depending on size
1 lb frozen spinach
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 large shallot
3-4 Tbl chopped fresh green onion
1/2 -3/4 oz pernod or sambuca
Sea Salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Cayenne pepper
Bacon grease
Unsalted butter
Parmesan cheese
Breadcrumbs (unseasoned)
Melted butter
3-4 cups sea salt for lining baking dish
Oyster shells for baking, the deeper the shell the better

Directions:
Preheat your over to 450 degees. Thaw the spinach and squeeze most, but not all, of the liquid out of it. Next you want to finely chop the shallot, garlic and green onion. Preheat a saute pan over medium heat and add 1 tbs of butter and 1 tbs of bacon grease. If you don't have bacon grease available, use 2 tbs of butter. Transfer the last three ingredients to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes before adding in the spinach and 1 more tbs of butter. Once the spinach has been added, stir with a wooden spoon until all of the spinach is separated and incorporated. If it looks dry, don't be stingy with the butter. Feel free to add as needed, it will only make it taste better! At this point you'll also want to add some sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and the cayenne pepper. How much you add depends on your taste, you be the judge. You'll definitely want to add a decent amount of black pepper though. Once everything has cooked together for a few minutes, add in the shot of pernod to deglaze the pan. Cook for one minute longer and then turn off heat and transfer contents to a bowl to cool.


Line the bottom of a glass baking dish with sea salt and place your oyster shells throughout the dish, taking care to keep them as level as possible. At this point you can drain the oysters. I highly recommend saving the liquid and freezing it for use in gumbo at a later date...that recipe will follow soon! Now the fun part, you get to start assembling your Oysters Rockefeller. Place one large or two small oysters in each shell.


Next, use a fork and spread a decent amount of the spinach mixture on top of each oyster.


On top of that goes a combination of 50% parmesan cheese and 50% bread crumbs, seasoned with fresh ground black pepper. Once everything is loaded on, drizzle melted butter on the breadcrumbs, this will help it brown without burning. Bake for 10 minutes or until the breadcrumbs just begin to brown. You DO NOT want to overcook these! I made this mistake the first time I made it and the oysters shrink up and become tough. Not good. Once done, let them rest for a few minutes before transferring them to a dinner plate. Two or three per person makes a great appetizer, while 6-8 makes a meal.


Enjoy!