What defines a party? Food, friends, and a lively atmosphere come to mind. If we also include our wee bivalve friends, the number of attendees rockets this soirée up the charts. Since we had such a fabulous time at our last oysterfest celebration, we decided to take advantage of the amazing weather we are having and host another. And with that, we set to single-handedly decimate the shellfish population….
Being the outgoing types that we are, this ain’t no ordinary picnic. What set out to be an iron chef crab challenge quickly turned into a oyster party when said secret ingredient was SOLD OUT! But that’s what iron chefs do – they improvise and make do with the ingredients at hand…
Yes, we are lucky to count so many shellfish adventurers as friends. And food adventurers too! No duplicate dishes or repeat performances here, with the exception of the star ingredient reprising their role in their favorite sauces costumes (Hogwash & Bloody Mary). So we set to work getting our charcoal grill good and hot to warm up some of those delicious side dishes…
This get-together rolled more like a 7 course meal, and was definitely a party for the taste buds. First up: home-made clam chowder-
That grill bestowed a nice smokey char on the two types of crostini… tomato bruschetta with goat cheese and reduced balsamic, and roasted grapes with thyme and cracked pepper boursin. A little unusual to be roasting grapes on a bbq grill, but hey, we like to keep things interesting…
Amazing Garlic Noodles, Crab Coconut salad, and Sausage Stuffing (great call on the stuffing!! it was like a little piece of Christmas heaven, and a perfect compliment to the menu)….
And now, on to the main course – our lovely and much regaled ingredient, I give you – the humble oyster. And just to be on trend with this little morsel, this time we rolled two ways. On the half shell with our delectable sauces…
Lounging on the grill, served with a lemon, pepper, butter, garlic sauce….
And just to give ourselves the edge over all those other poor picnicking souls…. Chocolate fondue! Amazing what you can do with a little heat – especially up the ante and stir up the competition amongst our crew. Game on people!
I love that given a time and a place, all this talent can come together to host an amazing feast, with an impromptu menu at that. Bravo friends, and I look forward to seeing you soon for our tri-annual Oyster extravaganza!!!