Oyster Show

Hey y'all, I'm Paula Deen, and today my sons Jamie and Bobby are taking me to dig for oysters

You know, they may not look like much here on the riverbeds, but just wait until I get them back to my kitchen

It sure won't be hard to decide what to do with these delicate morsels. Today we'll be making an oyster bisque that will have everybody coming back for seconds

Then I'm going to put some on the grill and make a lemon dill sauce. Now that's a perfect pairing for these oysters

And then next, it's scalloped oysters. And finally, for dessert, it's my lemon meringue pie

Simple and delicious. So y'all grab your bucket and your boots, because we're going on an oyster dig

Good morning y'all

I've got the most exciting field day planned for us today. We're actually going to go out to the Savannah Rivers and pick our very own oysters for today's recipe

So y'all come with me. There ain't no telling what could happen out there today

I'm so glad my sons Jamie and Bobby invited me on the boat today

Along with our old friend Jackie He knows where the best oyster is

I can hardly wait for them to show me how it's done

Come on mama, let's go, the tide's going out Okay, okay, I'm coming

It's taking you so long Well, I've been fixing us up a little basket of snacks

Hey Jackie Hey, how you doing? Fine, how you doing? Doing good

Be careful. Kick it in the booty, Jack. All right, we're ready

Y'all hold on. I can't believe this is my first time ever going to catch oysters

Step down here. Step right there. I'm so scared I can't reach it

Now do y'all see why I needed these strong boys here with me today? Cheers

Cheers. Bottoms up. Jackie, I thought most oyster bars offered cold beer

There's something cooler than the bug. You know what? We'll appreciate those oysters the next time we go out and order them, won't we

No kidding. I won't say they're overpriced. Yeah. Not as easy as you would think it is

It's sort of hard, but I enjoy it anyway. Oh, Jamie, you just sloshed at my eye

Sorry, Mom. Oh. Oh man. There. So there. So there for getting my eye

Is this how you want to play? No. I'm behind her. I'm sorry

With a hammer. I'm sorry. If you promise to cook these oysters up for me

I'll forgive you. OK. All right. Bubba, you about ready? Jackie, we got our bucket loaded up

I had a great time. Oh, I did too. Who's going to get me in the boat

That's it. Jackie, that was so much fun

Yeah, it was. I enjoyed it. Oh, I thank you for a great experience

All right, guys, I think I'm going to stay down here with Jackie

and wash his oysters off. All right. And help him clean up the boat

Jamie and I will head up to the kitchen and go ahead and get started. I love you. I love you, too, son

Jack, thanks. I had a good time. Thank you, Jackie. I'll be there

Jackie, it was a great experience. I enjoyed it. What a great time I had out there on the water with my buddy

Too bad he fell overboard and I was the only one to survive. I'm kidding you. He didn't fall overboard

I'm going to put these in the sink for right now because what I'm fixing to make you is Lucille Wright's oyster bisque

Now, to speed things along, I think Jamie and Bobby have been in my kitchen

because it looks like they've gotten things going for me. They've actually already started me a pot of celery and onions

And so I'm gonna go ahead and drain these. Now that should be like one onion and two or three stalks of celery

All right, so I'm just gonna put them right over there. Now I've got this pot heating up and we're gonna cook them

just until the corners start turning up on them. And see how pretty our oysters look

They're full of liquor. I love oyster liquor. All right, now oysters only take just a few minutes

But you see how they're already starting to lose that transparent look

Okay, so these are ready. So I going to just scoop out the oysters so then I won lose any in the pot So I just dump those over in there

And then I'm going to just pull this over here and pour that good oyster liquor into there

Look at that rich oyster stock. Now we're going to start our pot by making our roux

And we're going to use about a half a stick of butter. and we're going to use about two tablespoons of flour

Incorporate that in with that butter real, real good. Now we're going to take our stock

and slowly stir that into our flour mixture. Mmm, already looking and smelling so good

All right, while that's tightening up a little bit, I'm going to come over here and I'm just going to mash up our oysters

and our celery and our onions. This is a far stretch, I think I need to move it a little closer to me because I'm not short

on muscles. But I got to get it close to me. Alright, now I'm going to move back over here to my pot

Now I'm going to start adding the seasonings. I'm going to add about a tablespoon of lemon juice, a pinch of curry, a pinch of salt

a little accent, about a tablespoon of Worcestershire, and some cracked black pepper

And now I'm gonna stir that up good and add our heavy cream into our stock

Oh, and see that's really giving it a real bisky look. Doesn't that look good

And then I'm gonna add just a little whole milk. Now you could actually make this dish with half and half

if you wanted to. And I'm gonna turn up the heat a little bit

and put our oysters, our onions, and our celery mixture into that

And this is actually red pepper, and I don't think I got enough, so I'm gonna go back in there

with just a little bit more heat. Oh, that's good. I think I'm ready to ladle me up a bowl

and then we're gonna finish it once we get in our bowl. Now I want to share with y'all how Miss Lucille actually assembled her oyster bisque once she

got it in the bowl. We're going to sprinkle it with a little fresh parsley, a little fresh

grated nutmeg, and this is so nice. I like doing this. And Miss Lucille threw in a dollop of fresh

whipped cream. Now this has not been sweetened, just plain whipped cream. And then we're going to

sprinkle it with a little paprika and then just a little squirt of sherry. And you'll want to serve

this in a little pitcher on the table so that people can determine how much they want for their

own bowl. And you can see the cream melting in it. You know what they say about seafood, don't you

Eat fish, live longer, but eat an oyster and love longer. Mmm, here's to the oyster

Y'all stick around because I'm fixing to turn on the grill on the top of the stove

and I'm going to chargrill some oysters and scallop them. So I'll see y'all in a few minutes

I've just come out to the garden and picked and washed us some fresh dill

because I'm going to be making us lemon dill sauce. It's going to be just wonderful with our char-grilled oysters

I've got on the char-grill and I tell you what, I'm hot as a $3 pistol

I'm going to have to come out of this sweater. Because it's getting warm over here

All right, I've got our oysters, and I'm going to throw these on the grill

We got it nice and hot. And you'll see the way I'm putting it on the grill

One side of the oyster almost makes a bowl-like. So I'm going to sit these down, bowl side down

because I don't want to lose any of that liquor that's going to come out of those oysters

These are going to be so delicious. Ooh, I can hear them sizzling already

Like I said, it doesn't take them but a minute. We're gonna let them cook only until the shell pops open

So while those are cooking, I'm gonna come over here and mix our sauce. This sauce is so simple

We're gonna take a cup of mayonnaise. Take a little buttermilk. One chopped garlic clove

Throw that over in there so it can start marrying into that mayonnaise

All right, we're gonna want about a tablespoon of lemon zest. That just really flavors up that mayonnaise so nicely All right that about a tablespoon And then we got a little bit of fresh chopped parsley

And we're gonna put a little dill in here. This is so, so nice, so fragrant

You could actually, if you don't like tartar sauces with your seafood, you can actually make up this sauce

Take the lemon that we zested and squeeze probably about a tablespoon of lemon juice in there

So I'm just going to mix that up. And then you'll just need to pop this into your fridge

Once it's chilled, it'll thicken right back up. I'm going to stick this bowl of sauce to the side

and then I want to show you what it looks like once it's sat and thickened up. So this is the one that I made earlier

and you can see how much thicker it's gotten. And I hear dripping and sizzling going on behind me

So let's come over here and look and see what's going on

Most of them have opened. I'm going to move those right over here

And while those last three are waiting to open, I'm going to show you one of my favorite ways to eat oysters

and that's scalloped oysters. Now we're going to take salting crackers and just unseasoned breadcrumbs

And we're going to take our butter and just toss these crumbs in this

and I kind of want to hurry along because I don't want our oysters back there getting cold on us

All right, so we've got our crumbs together. We're going to take a cup of heavy cream

and we're going to season this with a little salt. And you can just do this to taste

A little celery powder, a little cracked black pepper. You could actually even add some Texas pete or Tabasco or cayenne to that

if you wanted it hot. and we're gonna top it off with a little fresh nutmeg

that just makes it so good. All right, now I'm gonna start by putting

about a third of a cup of the crumbs in a buttered dish. Yum

And we're gonna take half of our oysters and just kinda spread them out on top of those crumbs

And now I'm gonna top it with about a third of our cream

And that's just gonna soak all into those crackers. It's gonna be wonderful

All right, and I'm gonna put another layer of crumbs, just like that

And then I'm gonna come back, and I'm gonna put the rest of our oysters onto those crumbs

And make sure that they're spread evenly on those crackers so when you dip into the casserole

everybody will get plenty of oysters. Okay, and the other part of the cream

Mmm. Looks so good. And then we're just gonna top it with the rest of our crackers

Doesn't get any better. Oysters and soda crackers. Can't hardly wait. All right, now I'm fixing to put this in the oven

So we're gonna put these in a 350 degree preheated oven and bake those for about 25 minutes

In the meantime, I'm gonna get my plate and come over here and retrieve our oysters

And you can see all three of these have opened. Looking good

Those are cooled off enough that I can actually touch those. Oh, look at all that juice that just went out of that one

Don't they look just delicious? One of Savannah, Georgia's favorite foods. All right, I'm going to sit these over here

And in the other oven, I have some scalloped oysters that should be ready

Gosh, oh, it's hot. Hot, hot, hot. Doesn't that look just delicious

All right, like I said, I can't hardly wait to taste these oysters. Look at all the liquor that was in them

Mmm. These just look incredibly delicious. All right, let's see. I think I'm gonna top mine with a little lemon juice

And I'm gonna put a little dollop of dill sauce on each of my oysters

And just a little bit of salt. Mmm. When we eat oysters in Savannah

it's almost a production. This is how I eat them. I just suck them straight out of the shell

Mmm. They're so incredibly wonderful. I'm going to dip me out a little bit of that

scalloped oyster. Oh, it's so piping hot. That juice from the oysters is going to be so, so good

It's really hard for me to decide which of these oysters I like the best

They're both so good. Y'all stick around because next I'm going to be making us a nice lemon pie

to go along with all of our seafood. So I'll see y'all in a minute. One of my favorite things with seafood is definitely lemon

So to finish off our meal today, I'm making just an old-timey lemon meringue pie

And we're going to start with just sweetened condensed milk. Oh, I love this stuff

Now, actually, I'm using a deep-dish pie shell today, So I'm doubling the recipe because I like real thick, tall pies

All right, so how easy is this to put together? I'm going to use about a heaping teaspoon of lemon zest

And let's see, I'm probably going to use about a half a cup of lemon juice

This is one of those easy, easy recipes that you can make in advance and have it waiting on you

All right, now I'm gonna take my egg yolks. And the important part of this recipe is making sure

that they haven't gone past their expiration date and have no cracks in them

The reason I've cautioned you is because this particular pie requires no cooking

It's gonna have your raw egg yolks in it. This is really not an issue with me

but you know, that's really a judgment call for you to make for you and your family

Look how pretty and golden that yolk turns our filling. All right, now we want to make sure that our pie crust has had a chance

to come out of the oven and completely cool. So this is ready to go in and see what a fat

high pie we're going to have. So good and so simple to make. All right, let's move on

over here to our meringue. We're going to take our egg whites

and slip them into our bowl. And I'm going to use about 1 1⁄4 of a teaspoon

of crema tartar just to ensure that they are going to be nice and fluffy for us

And you'll want to beat your egg whites on a very high speed and slowly add the sugar

It almost looks like divinity candy, doesn't it? So now it's time to top our pie with a meringue and see how nice and stiff it is

Now the important part of frosting your pie is sealing the edges of your pie

so that when we refrigerate it, it won't pull away from that crust. Mm-mm-mm

We're gonna bring that all the way in and let it nestle up

We want it all to be completely sealed in there. And then I'm gonna just smooth out the rest of my meringue

And we have ourselves one beautiful pie. Okay, this is sealed up real nicely and ready to run into a hot oven

We want it just a nice golden brown. Now I have one that's already ready

Just beautiful. You know, I love this pie. It's probably one of my favorite

but there's only one thing that I don't like about this pie. You can't cut it while it's warm

So I can't taste it right now. But hang with me anyway

because I've got some tips for you coming up, and then maybe we can slip in that taste

I've got a few tips that I'd like to share with y'all

Normally, we will serve our oysters with a tartar or a cocktail sauce

Well, I'm going to give you a quick little recipe for a lighter sauce because it makes the oysters almost calorie-free

And this sauce is called a mignonette sauce, and it's strictly either shallots or purple onion

Now the purple onion is going to give you a lot stronger flavor than a shallot would

We're going to use a red wine vinegar, and we're going to go really, really heavy with fresh cracked black pepper

See how pretty that sauce is. Happy oystering. I hope that y'all enjoyed today's show

I know I had a great time, and I hope that one of these recipes will come in very handy for you one day

Lucille's oyster bisque is out of this world, and the scalloped oysters and the char-grilled oysters and the lemon pie

In fact, this pie right here is still not quite chilled enough, but you know what

I'm having a piece of this pie regardless. So until next time, America, best dishes from my kitchen to yours

Thank you