Oysters Rockefeller

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Oyster Rockefeller is a famous dish usually associated with opulent wealth. (I mean, ROCKEFELLER is in the name, right?) However, now that oysters are pretty decently priced, there’s no reason you can’t enjoy them at home yourself!

For more great seafood holiday recipes, try my shrimp cocktail with homemade cocktail sauce, or a Shrimp Salad.

Oysters Rockefeller

Oysters Rockefeller is one of those dishes that people frequently associate with opulent, extravagant wealth, thanks to its name after the Rockefeller family. However, this New Orleans classic dish is nothing more than some beautiful fresh oysters topped with crunchy, richly flavored breadcrumbs and some garlicky spinach.

The real trick with this recipe is to avoid overcooking the oysters. While this recipe should definitely have warmed through, bubbling oysters, they shouldn’t be overcooked so much so that they taste chewy.       

Oysters Rockefeller Ingredients

Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.

• Large oysters on the half shell

• Coarse rock or kosher salt

Spinach Topping

• Salted butter

• Shallot

• Garlic cloves

• Spinach leaves

• Pernod

Bread Crumb Topping

• Salted butter

• Garlic cloves

• Bread crumbs

• Fresh parsley

• Parmesan

• Salt & pepper

• Lemon wedges

How To Make Oysters Rockefeller

• Cover a baking sheet large enough to hold all the oysters with salt

• Prepare your oysters; rinse them and carefully open them using a shucking knife

• Place the open oysters onto the sheet pan, nestling them amongst the salt

• Melt the butter in a large sauté pan

• Add the shallots and sauté over medium heat for 3 minutes

• Add in the garlic and sauté until fragrant

• Add in the spinach and sauté until it is wilted

• Add in the Pernod and sauté for another minute, seasoning as you go

• Place the finished mixture in a bowl and refrigerate to cool it down

• Melt more butter in the pan and sauté garlic in it until fragrant

• Add the breadcrumbs and stir to mix them in

• Add in the parsley and let it wilt, and then remove from the heat and stir in the Parmesan, and season to taste

• Preheat your oven to 400 Fahrenheit, and then top each of your cold oysters with one tablespoon of the spinach mixture

• Top that with the breadcrumb mixture and bake at 10 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the oysters are plumped       

Where & When To Get Oysters For This Recipe?

Unless you happen to live on the seaside near some oyster fishing locations, you might struggle to find some good-quality oysters for this recipe.

To get oysters, you can either find a good quality fishmonger or order them online. Just make sure that you don’t buy those packs of frozen oysters from the supermarket. They will not only be super low quality, but they will also not have those necessary half-shells, which are vital for both cooking the oysters and for serving them.

After all, it wouldn’t be oysters Rockefeller without some beautiful presentation!

How To Get That Really Bright Green Color

Oysters Rockefeller is well known for its really bright and distinctive green coloration along the top.

Interestingly, despite the fact that most recipes, including this one, achieve the color using spinach, the original recipe made by Alciatore at his New Orleans restaurant apparently absolutely did not use spinach!

While the original supposedly used a mixture of strained celery or chives, along with pureed parsley, spinach is probably the easiest way for the home cook to get that beautiful green color.

To help encourage good green color, make sure that you don’t overcook the spinach when mixing it into the hot butter mixture. If you let it get too cooked, it will wilt and lose most of the vibrancy that makes the dish so beautiful and appetizing.  

Looking for more delicious Seafood recipes? Try these out:

• New England Clam Chowder

• Bacon Wrapped Scallops

Enjoy!

Love,

Karlynn

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