Making Pan Fried Oysters:

This is how I made pan fried oysters yesterday, after I had canned and did my bulk cooking.  These turned out delicious, though they are not cookbook quality photos.  (Just warning you there, about the picture of the end product ... but, boy, were they delicious!)

I usually use Ritz Crackers for this project, but we were out.  I looked around and found half a box of Chicken in a Biskit crackers.  I put them in a Ziplock bag and rolled them flat with the rolling pin from I stole from the playdough box.  I think that I was supposed to fill it with water for more weight, but I didn't.  I need to get a new wooden rolling pin.  Mrs. Bentsen gave me the one I have for a wedding present in 1978, and one handle is now missing.  It too is regulated to the playdough box.  The kids don't mind.  But I digress.  Back to the pan fried oyster project.

I smashed the crackers down with the rolling pin.  Get the crackers as fine as you can.  These here are really are too coarse, but I was in a hurry.  Later, that came back to haunt me, just a little bit.  These oysters are in a big jar that I got at Costco.  You get a lot of them and they were around $10.00.  If I had bought them at the local store, the little jars are around $5.00 each, and you would need 3 of them to equal this jar.  But, if I don't feel like driving in the 30 miles to Costco, I pay more for oysters but less for gas.  It all equals out.

I poured the oysters into a strainer and rinsed them off well.  I always use a strainer in my sink.  Don't look too closely at my sink.  It is technically clean, but it is permanently stained.  It is stained because we have hard water, and over the past 10 years, the finish has been taken off due to the cleaning products that have tried hard to make it clean.  I think that we need a new sink, along with a new wooden rolling pin.  If I am going to really get into cooking, I need to get this kitchen into shape!  Though I am very thankful for my kitchen island.

I beat two eggs, added a bit of half and half and some lemon pepper spice.  I soaked a handful of oysters in the egg mixture and then put them in the cracker crumb bag and shook them. until they were coated.  In hindsight, I think maybe I would have deleted the half and half, had finer crumbs and and dredged the oysters one by one through the crumbs.  If I were out to impress company or was making a cookbook photo, I would do that next time.

They are in the bag, coated and ready to fry.

I melted a cube of butter and put in about 1/4 cup of olive oil into the frying pan.  I used to use only butter, but I was talking to an actual restaurant cook about my oysters and he shrank back a bit when I said, no, I don't use oil.  So, this time I did.  Maybe more oil and less butter would work better next time.  See, that is the thing about cooking ... it is all a science experiment and there is always room for improvement.

I added the oysters and cooked them until they were brown.

Then I put them on a baking pan and baked them at 300* for about half an hour.  They may not look too appetizing, but boy did they taste wonderful!  And there were so many of them, for just the two of us, that I gave us each a bowl and we got to eat until we were full.  That was a great little dinner, if I do say so myself.