Oysters on the Half Shell with Ass On Fire Sauce

Mmmmm....oysters.....

You either love 'em or hate 'em. That's the truth. But if you love 'em like I do, then you'll love this post with some great tips for preparing fresh raw oysters with a super spicy sauce to go with those briny goodies.

Andrew brought home some local Washington oysters from our neighborhood Whole Foods last week and I had nothing to prepare for a traditional side sauce. Usually you'll serve a classic mignonette or a spicier cocktail sauce or just some freshly grated horseradish. Or you could do an Asian soy-ginger-scallion sauce. Point it, I had a little for all of these but not enough to make one sauce completely. So what did I do? I combined them all into one super spicy sauce that was awesome.

Warning: this recipe is extremely spicy and not for the faint of heart. Seriously -- it is atomic level -- so don't mess around with it if you're new to the spicy and detest the heat (for some ungodly reason). But if you like spicy foods, then this is right up your ally and you'll fall in love. Would go great with simple boiled shrimp too for a shrimp cocktail.

Raw Oysters with Ass On Fire Sauce
12 raw oysters
3 Tbsp ketchup
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 lemon - juice of one half, other half reserved and cut into wedges for garnish
1 Tbsp sriracha hot sauce
1 tsp prepared wasabi

Combine the ketchup, vinegar, lemon juice, sriracha and wasabi in a small bowl. Chill until ready to serve. Can be made up to a day in advance.

To serve oysters, pop open the shells using an oyster knife and glove or heavy kitchen towel. A tip is to have your fish guy/girl pop the seal for you at the market (this is done by inserting the knife into the lip of the oyster shell and breaking the seal), and then you can finish opening them at home right before serving. To do this, run your oyster knife (or the sturdiest butter knife you've got) in between the lip, separating the shell into two pieces. Run your knife then under the oyster meat to seperate it from the shell. Place the half shells with oyster meat on a plate of crushed ice and serve immediately with the sauce and lemon wedges for garnish.


My notes:
Other traditional accompaniments include freshly grated horseradish -- horseradish root peeled, then grated with a microplane -- and a squeeze of lemon juice; tobasco sauce or your favorite hot sauce right on the oyster; mignonette sauce (combination of very finely chopped shallot, red wine vinegar, a small pinch of sugar, lemon juice, black pepper and finely chopped scallions); traditional cocktail sauce (ketchup, horseradish (freshly grated or prepared), lemon juice, hot sauce, and worcestershire sauce) or asian (soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, scallions, garlic, ginger).