Once Daddy and I sat down, the owner, Mike, would plop some beers down on the counter for us, and we’d drink them while Mike shucked a dozen fresh oysters on the half-shell right in front of us. Daddy liked his with only lemon and salt and pepper, and I ate mine with Mike’s special hot sauce. But, you know what? It didn’t matter that the place was a little hole-in-the-wall. What really mattered was that special time I got to spend with my Daddy – in a funny,little place – with twinkling Christmas lights, where we laughed and talked and shared between us, a dozen of the best dadgum Appalachicola oysters you’ll ever eat!
Oysters Rockefeller
Recipe by: Bobbi Jo Lathan
Recipe type: Appetizer
Cuisine: Traditional
PREP TIME
35 mins
COOK TIME
8 mins
TOTAL TIME
43 mins
INGREDIENTS
3 dozen fresh oysters in the shell (washed well)
1 medium onion (finely chopped)
½ cup butter
1 ½ cups fresh spinach (washed well and roughly chopped)
1 cup Romano cheese (grated)
⅓ cup panko bread crumbs
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 dash of hot sauce (to your liking)
⅛ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon sea salt
4 cups kosher salt (for trays or pans)
INSTRUCTIONS
Shuck your oysters, keeping the bottom shell with the oysters in them, and set them aside.
Now, in a large skillet, saute the chopped onion in butter and olive oil until translucent.
Add the spinach and cook until wilted.
Remove the onion/spinach mixture from the heat and stir in the hot sauce, cheese, lemon juice and salt and pepper.
Spread the kosher salt onto two ungreased baking pans.
Lightly press the oyster shells with the oysters resting in them down into the salt.
Top each oyster with 1½ teaspoons of the spinach mixture and sprinkle lightly with bread crumbs. Bake, uncovered, at 450° for 6-8 minutes or until oysters are plump. And serve them delicious babies right away. YUM!!
NOTES
Mama would occasionally fry up 2 pieces of bacon and crumble it into tiny pieces and add them to the spinach mixture before spooning the mixture onto the oysters and baking them. You know us Southerners, we gotta have our bacon!