Roast Oysters And Tomato Butter Recipes

Steps:

• Make the garlic-parsley butter: Puree the butter, parsley, shallots, lemon zest, roasted garlic and a little salt and pepper in a food processor until smooth.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Open the oysters with an oyster knife. Divide the oysters among small baking dishes lined with baguette slices. Place a heaping teaspoon of garlic-parsley butter on each oyster. Roast the oysters until the butter is melted, 8 to 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400°F. Stir shallot, vinegar, and 1 Tbsp. water in a small bowl; set aside. Line a plate with salt (this will help hold the oysters in place without tipping out their juices) and set aside.
• Rinse oysters, then arrange flat side up on a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet. Roast until oysters crack open, 4-6 minutes. (They won't open completely like a cooked clam; the top shell will separate from the bottom with about a 1/4" opening at the rounded end.) Some may open before others-remove from oven as soon as they open. Discard any oysters that don't open after 7 minutes.
• To finish opening oysters: Fold a dish towel several times and hold oyster using towel. Slide a butter knife into opening all the way to the hinge. Turn butter knife perpendicular so top shell pops all the way open. Pull off top shell with your hand, being careful not to tip bottom shell and lose any liquid (this should all happen very easily without much force). Gently slide knife under oyster in bottom shell to release the muscle, then transfer to plate with salt.
• Stir butter into reserved vinegar mixture. Spoon over oysters.

Steps:

• Ignite a full chimney of coals and spread out under one side of the grill once they are fully covered in gray ash, or heat half the burners of a gas grill to high. Cover and let the grill heat for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cut off a sheet of aluminum foil twice the length of a 13-by-18-inch rimmed baking sheet. Crumple it up so that it fits into the baking sheet. The crumpled foil should be able to support the cupped side of the oysters without allowing them to tip over.
• Prepare the garlic-herb butter: In a food processor, combine the butter, parsley, basil, garlic, lemon zest and juice, a large pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Process until the herbs are finely chopped and there are no large chunks of butter remaining, about 30 seconds total, stopping to scrape down the sides of the processor with a rubber spatula a few times as needed. Transfer the mixture to a small, oven-safe saucepan.
• Using tongs, arrange the oysters over the hot side of the grill, placing them with the cupped sides down, doing your best to set them in the grates so that oyster juices don't pour out of the cups as they open. Cover and cook, checking on them every minute or so, and transferring any oysters that have begun to gape open to the foil-lined baking sheet. After a total of 4 minutes, transfer any remaining oysters to the foil whether they have opened or not. Place the saucepan on the cooler side of the grill.
• As soon as the oysters are cool enough to handle, pry off the top shells with a butter knife or oyster knife, severing through the muscle that holds the oyster to the shell and retaining as much juice in the shell as possible. For oysters that aren't already gaping open, the easiest way to pry off the lids is by inserting the tip of the knife into the joint and firmly twisting it until the joint releases.
• Spoon a generous teaspoon of the garlic-herb butter (which should be fully melted by now) into each oyster, then return the oysters directly onto the grates on the hot side of the grill. Cook, uncovered, until the sauce mixture is bubbling hot, about 1 minute. Return the oysters to the foil-lined baking sheet and serve immediately.