Pictorial: Steamed Live Oyster w/ Garlic Blk Beans

[hzrt8w]

Steamed Live Oyster with Garlic and Black Beans (豉汁蒸生蠔)

If you have access to live oyster, this is one of the best ways to cook them Cantonese style: steamed with garlic and fermented black beans. The taste is succulent and fresh. This is what Cantonese-style live seafood is all about. You can use the same method to steam live scallops and fish.

Dedicated to rjwong.

Picture of the finished dish:

Serving Suggestion: 2

Preparations:

Main ingredients:

- 12 live oysters

- 5-6 cloves of garlic (not shown)

- 4-5 tsp of fermented black beans (not shown)

- ginger, 1 inch in length (not shown)

- 1 stalk of green onion (not shown)

Hold the oyster with one hand.

I don't have the proper equipment to shuck an oyster, nor do I really know what the proper way is to shuck an oyster. I just have a strong determination to cook live oysters for dinner! I only use a butter knife. I look for small crack openings in the shell, and very quickly jam the butter knife in through the crack. If I am successful in the sneak attack, then the rest is easy. Just jiggle the knife to sever the muscle that is holding the shells. Then I can peel off the shell.

Remember to use the knife to sever the muscle on the bottom side as well to make it easier to pick up at the dinner table.

The shells of these critters are very hard to open. I need to learn how to open them properly! For some, I resolved to using a pair of pliers to chip off part of the shells so that I can insert my butter knife into the shell.

Lay all the opened oysters on a plate, get ready for steaming.

Use a small bowl, add 3 to 4 tsp of fermented black beans. Slightly rinse the fermented black beans with water, then drain. Use a tea spoon to smash the bean into a paste form.

Grate some ginger, about 1 inch in length. Peel and mince (or press) 5-6 cloves of garlic. Add to the bowl.

Use the tea spoon to mix the fermented black beans, ginger and garlic to form a paste.

Scoop 1 or 2 tsp of the black bean/ginger/garlic paste and spread evenly on top of the opened-shell oysters.

(Not shown) Trim ends and finely chop 1 stalk of green onion. Set aside.

Cooking Instructions:

Place the plates in a steamer. Steam for about 15 minutes (counting from when the water starts boiling).

Remove plates from steamer when done. Each half shell may have collected excess liquid from the steam. Tilt each shell to slightly drain the excess liquid.

As a finishing touch: use a small pot and heat up about 4 tblsp of cooking oil until fuming hot (usually takes about 4-5 minutes). Sprinkle the chopped green onions on top of each oyster first. Then quickly dash in a few drops of the fuming hot oil on top of each oyster. Finally dash in a few drops of light soy sauce on top.

Serve immediately.

Picture of the finished dish.

(Note: The quantity of food made in this recipe is about twice the portion shown in this picture.)

Edited March 26, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Fantastic as always, Ah Leung. This simple approach to using black beans seems ingenious; instead of making a little sauce before steaming, this method allows the steam to make the sauce. Thanks as always!

[muichoi]

hzrt8w,looks fantastic, but PLEASE wear a glove or heavy cloth on your left hand or you're going to do yourself a nasty injury.

[wesza]

Ah Leung:

We used to serve a very similar dish at our restaurant in Honolulu that we called: "Chinese Drunken Oysters",

The only real difference was that we added Shaohsing Wine, White Pepper and consolidated it into a paste with Sweet Butter, Fermented Black Beans, Garlic, Leaf Parsly, Grated Ginger with a dash of Balsamic Vineger.

We then covered the bottom of the shell, and the Oysters with the paste and brought them to bubbling in the Salamander Broiler before serving with some spring onions sprinkled on top.

It was one of our most popular appetizers. The "Drunken" name was due to the Fermented Black Beans and the Shaohsing Wine. Many customers added some Hot Sauce before enjoying. We used Washington State Oysters.

Irwin

[hzrt8w]

This simple approach to using black beans seems ingenious; instead of making a little sauce before steaming, this method allows the steam to make the sauce.

←

Thanks Chris. I am just tapping into the wisdom of hundreds/thousands(?) of years of Cantonese cooking.

In fact if someone ever visits Hong Kong and goes to places in Sai Kung or Lee Yu Mun to have the famous live seafood, Cantonese style, you would most likely encounter this style of cooking.

[hzrt8w]

hzrt8w,looks fantastic, but PLEASE wear a glove or heavy cloth on your left hand or you're going to do yourself a nasty injury.

←

Thanks for your warning, muichoi. But it was too late. I already got a minor cut. Not a big deal, fortunately.

I have slaughtered swimming fish, halved jumping prawns, and butchered fighting live crabs, and this has been my biggest challenge yet in dealing with live seafood. These are not styrofoam meat, you know!

[jo-mel]

I was reading 'live oysters' and thinking 'oysters on the half-shell' Chinese style ----- then I saw the steamed part. Could regular raw oysters also be used for this great sounding dish?

When we were in our martini drinking days, DH would shuck clams or oysters for our 'just grown-ups' dinner on a Friday night when all the kids were in bed. DH was quite good at shucking, but even with a proper clam or oyster knife, he would still cut himself. Couldn't be the martinis, tho ------- or could it? LOL!

[jhirshon]

Ah Leung:

We used to serve a very similar dish at our restaurant in Honolulu that we called: "Chinese Drunken Oysters",

The only real difference was that we added Shaohsing Wine, White Pepper and consolidated it into a paste with Sweet Butter, Fermented Black Beans, Garlic, Leaf Parsly, Grated Ginger with a dash of Balsamic Vineger.

We then covered the bottom of the shell, and the Oysters with the paste and brought them to bubbling in the Salamander Broiler before serving with some spring onions sprinkled on top.

It was one of our most popular appetizers. The "Drunken" name was due to the Fermented Black Beans and the Shaohsing Wine. Many customers added some Hot Sauce before enjoying. We used Washington State Oysters.

Irwin

←

Couldn't you just as easily steam the oysters just long enough to have them open on their own - then add the seasonings and complete the steaming/cooking using either hzrt8w's or Wesza's seasoning methods (I'd personally add a touch of oyster sauce as well to complete the oyster motif, but that's just me).

Thoughts?

cheers, JH

Edited March 27, 2006 by jhirshon (log)

[slkinsey]

Looks delicious!

Ah Leung, one small suggestion on opening an oyster: The technique for opening an oyster and opening a clam are the opposite. When you open a clam, you slide the knife in between the shells at the side where the shell comes open, and work the knife back towards the hinge severing the muscles. With an oyster, you stick the point of the knife down in between the two shells at the hinge, and then pop the two shells apart using the knife as a lever.

http://www.jacquespepin.net/members/techni...openoyster.html

[hzrt8w]

Couldn't you just as easily steam the oysters just long enough to have them open on their own - then add the seasonings and complete the steaming/cooking using either hzrt8w's or Wesza's seasoning methods (I'd personally add a touch of oyster sauce as well to complete the oyster motif, but that's just me).

←

Steaming is best done all in one shot. If you break down the process into 2 steps, I think the taste would not come out as good. Besides, it's hard to do in practice too when you have a dozen of steaming hot oysters to open - hard to hold on to the shell.

[hzrt8w]

[...] With an oyster, you stick the point of the knife down in between the two shells at the hinge, and then pop the two shells apart using the knife as a lever.

←

Thank you, Samuel. I knew there are better ways to open the critters. After all, I have seen on TV that someone opened a dozen oysters in something like half a minute during a competition. I didn't have the patience to do the research before dinner time! I certainly will try your instructions next time. And, yeah, I would probably pick up an oyster shucking knife...

[wonderbread]

These look fantastic! Too bad we're almost into the non-R months for oysters.

My tip on opening oysters: Stick the knife in the hinge side and wear a big potholder on the hand holding the oyster! Protects your hand, and it costs less than a chain mail glove.

I've made a variation on this from the Yan-Kit So Chinese cookbook. You fry up choppd up garlic, ginger, sugar, black beans and yellow beans in a few tbsp of oil, spread it on the opened oysters and steam. Then sprinkle with chopped scallions.

Edited April 23, 2006 by wonderbread (log)