Last post before returning to Philly in the morning for my final semester at Penn (still in denial). In lieu of spending my last few hours in Seattle driving around the city and eating out, we decided to have some quality family time at home. However, we still managed to make the day exciting with... fresh oysters!
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| I can now proudly say that I've shucked an oyster - such a satisfying feeling when that stubborn top shell finally pries open and your end product looks like it came straight out of a raw bar at some fancy restaurant |
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| Perfect late lunch / pre-dinner appetizer! Kumamotos on the left and Penn Coves (larger ones outside) and Shigokus (inside) on the right |
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I love the seafood in Seattle because of its freshness and abundance. We only had to drive five minutes from our house to a small fish market nearby in order to get these. At about $1.50 an oyster (for the Kumamotos) or $10.99 per dozen for a few of the other varieties, this deal was even more exciting than happy hour at an oyster bar. We decided to get a dozen of the Kumamotos (which I had tried once before at Aquagrill in NYC) and half a dozen each of the Penn Cove and Shigoku oysters. After taking them home, the real fun began.
I have never shucked an oyster before, so this was definitely a new experience. It looks ridiculously simple on YouTube and yet, when I actually tried to open my first one, it remained very stubbornly shut. I finally had to ask my dad for help after my mom and I kept breaking off bits of shell pieces and learned that it takes a lot of strength and pressure (at least on my part) to unhinge the top shell. After a few tries, it started getting a bit easier, but it definitely makes me appreciate the work those people do at seafood restaurants and raw bars (and in 3 seconds flat!?). Anyway, the end result was very much worth the effort and at probably less than half the cost of what you would find at any restaurant! The Kumamotos were probably the sweetest (though hardest to shuck) and paired really well with the vinaigrette I made, which was basically just a mix of rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and lemon juice. The Shigokus would be a great choice for anyone just starting out with raw oysters since it had a very light, clean taste. My favorite of the three, however, was the Penn Cove oysters. The larger size gave it a slightly meatier texture and it had a very crisp and briny flavor which I enjoyed.
Just a few other snippets from our day. I also baked a batch of the famous New York Times chocolate chip cookies (recipe can be found here) which are undoubtedly one of the best cookies I have ever eaten. This is saying a lot as I can hardly call myself even an amateur baker. I think the key here is that the recipe calls for both cake flour and bread flour, which definitely helps it keep a very chewy texture even after the cookies have cooled. I also used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate discs to balance out the sweetness and rolled each dough ball to exactly 3 ounces (a bit OCD, I know). Most importantly, you have to refrigerate the dough for at least 24 hours, and up to 3 days. After experimenting with one day versus three days, I can attest to the fact that each additional day you keep it refrigerated does seem to intensify the flavor a bit. So this is probably one of the most high maintenance batch of cookies you will ever make. But look how pretty!
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| They taste even better than they look ;) |
And... made homemade ramen burger buns (lolol). I'd say they were pretty successful, and went great with our bison burgers, Tillamook cheddar, and arugula. Not sure how I feel about these; we ran out of actual burger buns, hence the Brooklyn Smorgasburg-inspired substitution. I guess the real ramen burger, along with the cronut, will remain on my list of things I still need to try.
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| Reasons why everyone should start eating bison: better flavor, twice the protein, half the fat! |
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