Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published November 27, 2006 Click here for the current edition An Inspiration: Broiled Oysters Remember the time you were fooling around with miscellaneous ingredients in the kitchen--maybe they were items left over from something else, or were about to spoil--and you wound up creating a brilliant dish? Not just brilliant considering the low state of the ingredients, but brilliant by any standard? That made you look at the dish and say, "Wow! How did I do that, again?" That happened to me yesterday. I'd bought a quart of nice oysters from P&J Oyster Company two days before Thanksgiving, with the idea of making Italian-style oysters as my annual substitute for oyster dressing (which I detest). But come Thanksgiving, the one dish I hadn't finished--heck, I hadn't started it--was the Italian oysters. We went through the weekend going out to restaurants with my kids (who were in town for less than a week from their schools in Washington, DC), and the oysters just sat there. I finally made the Italian oysters for my Monday lunch. They were good. But I still had two-third of the oysters. So I intended to do something else with them on Tuesday--specifically, broiling them with just some olive oil, herbs, and seasoning. On Tuesday, time ran short. But I had those oysters on my mind, and even with just fifteen minutes before I had to leave for the South Shore I threw the thing together. I coated the bottom of the skillet with a generous amount of olive oil, and put down a layer of oysters. No time to chop fresh garlic and parsley, so I used granulated garlic and dried parsley, along with thyme and oregano. And a lot--a crust, really--of Creole seasoning. I put the pan under the broiler and got dressed. Eight minutes later, they were almost there. After ten minutes, the crust had browned, the oysters were curly and shrunk by about ten percent, and the water from the oysters had mingled in the pan with the olive oil and everything else. I scooped the oysters and all the pan liquids into a bowl, grabbed a piece of French bread, and chowed down, waiting only long enough so that the oysters wouldn't sear my mouth. How can I describe my reaction? It was a mixture of the pleasure of intense deliciousness, involving a food I'm passionate about to begin with, with the realization that I was eating a dish I'd never had the likes of before. It reminded me a little of char-broiled oysters at Drago's, but only a little--no cheese here, and much more pepper. There was a delicious broiled oyster dish that Chris Vodonovich made for me once at Bozo's, but this was much juicier and more herbal. I kept eating. Where have I had this before? I couldn't recall if I ever had. It was so simple. . . so obvious. . . somebody must have done this somewhere! But who knows where or when? (To quote my favorite song.) Until I figure that out, I'm claiming this as my own. I tell you truly, and with what little modesty I have about my own cooking, that it's been a long time since I've improvised a dish this good. It is exactly to my own tastes, which gives it an advantage. But I think you might like it too. The recipe is later in this newsletter. © 2006 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com