Mr. Hawthorne Fries Oysters And Rosie Makes Tartar Sauce.

 

 The Hawthornes are having fried oysters today for lunch.

Mr. Hawthorne is preparing the oysters 

and I'm making a tartar sauce with a twist.

 

The twist on my tartar is roasted pepper.

The accents are exquisitely fresh herbs.

When we were at Uncle Bubba Deen's Restaurant

in Savannah last month,

we were served a tartar sauce with roasted red pepper in it

which we both liked 

and I've been wanting to use this idea, Rosie's way.

I happen to have an orange pepper from the garden,

 but I like the color of the red better.

When we were at Food Lion this morning,

I checked out the red peppers.

They wanted $1.67 a piece

and each pepper was sealed in cellophane.
I passed.

Rosie's Roasted Pepper Tartar Sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp white wine vinegar

2 TB sweet relish

1 TB freshly parsley, chopped

1 TB fresh dill, chopped

1 scallion, sliced

1 TB roasted pepper, chopped

Mix all together.

Now for the process:

I skewered part of the pepper

and charred it all over.

If you don't have an open flame,

put the pepper a few inches away from your broiler.

And watch it.

Be sure you get the nooks and crannies charred.

After blackening the pepper,

immediately plunge into ice water.

I picked dill, scallion and parsley.

I couldn't resist the pretty dill flower.

Some white wine vinegar going into mayo.

If you want to make this your own,

taste test as you go along.

I'm giving you the basic guidelines,

but you can tailor it to your tastes.

Caution:  If you tailor it to your tastes

and don't like it,

then don't send me nasty emails

telling me my food tastes like crap.

That said,

proceed with caution.

Add in the sweet relish.

Parsley.

Dill.

Green onion.

Back to the pepper.

Rub off char.

You don't need to be OC about this.

A certain amount of char imparts a nice flavor.

I didn't use the whole half pepper.

The rest, I put in a plastic bag,

poured a little oil in, massaged it,

and refrigerated it.

Pepper in.

Next time, I'll use red pepper.

And more of it.

I love this tartar sauce.

Mr. Hawthorne tossed his oysters in

a combination of 3 parts flour, 1 part cornmeal,

and 1/2 part cornstarch, 1 TB Old Bay Seasoning.

In 355-365 degree canola/vegetable oil mixture

for less than 90 seconds.

Mr. Hawthorne says that canola oil will not really

brown the oyster.

Corn oil will brown a fried oyster more,

but Mr. H. prefers the lighter canola oil.

Oysters in one at a time.

Drain.

Another Happy Meal

for the Happy Hawthornes!

Perfectly lightly breaded and lightly fried oysters,

a sufferingly bland cole slaw offered by Mr. Hawthorne

(We disagree vehemently on cole slaws, potato salads, et al.),

cocktail sauce

 (Ketchup, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce and lemon,

swirled, not mixed through.

Remember:  pockets of flavor.),

and Roasted Pepper Tartar Sauce.

Hmmm....
I wonder if I'll ever hear about Mr. Hawthorne's
"sufferingly bland cole slaw."

He doesn't read my blog much.
He has to live it.