Zowie! Superb! Just remember the frying time is very short ... like two minutes, one minute per side for medium size oysters, or about two minutes per side for large oysters, at a slightly lower temperature. Pale tan is your goal color. Don't worry, they will be deliciously crispy on the outside, and sufficiently cooked through, but still juicy and tasty on the inside.
How can I know they will be safe to eat? The single most important consideration is they are to be live and freshly shucked. Note that freshly shucked oysters are eaten raw ... without any problems (other than not having enough!). If the oysters you use are not freshly shucked then you must be certain you fry them long enough to be cooked all the way through, and that means increasing the frying times noted in this recipe by oyster size by an additional minute per side. That will make the fried coating somewhat darker but still okay. Just avoid overcooking by frying too long as that will degrade the quality/taste/texture of what you serve.
Note that a simple tartar sauce is excellent with fried oysters ... or, you can get fancy with the Remoulade sauce recipe shown below, one of many versions of Remoulade sauce. Most of the Remoulade recipes tend towards the hot side, but not this one, which I prefer. Note also that the fried oysters are excellent if served on top of a salad, like a lightly dressed Caesar Salad.
I used to enjoy fried oysters, French fries and coleslaw for lunch many years ago in downtown Wilmington, DE. Alas, that one excellent restaurant for fried oysters finally went out of business when the owners retired. Many years later I found very good fried oysters served on a salad at the Bayard House restaurant in South Chesapeake city, MD. But that item eventually disappeared from their menu. Drat!
All other restaurants I tried in many different towns and cities simply overfried the oysters. Yuck! Now you know why, if you want excellence, you will likely have to make the fried oysters at home.
Do make this entree and really please yourself and your friends and loved ones.
Ingredients: (2 to 3 adult servings)
For the oysters:
1 quart of freshly shucked medium to large size oysters (2 1/2" long to 4" long)
2 cups of buttermilk
1/2 cup of cornmeal
3/4 cup of corn flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
2 tbsp. of corn starch
1 tsp. of sea salt
1 1/2 quarts of peanut oil
For the Remoulade sauce:
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
1/2 of a ripe avocado, peeled and chopped
1/3 cup of sour cream
2 tbsp. of freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tsp. of Maggi® seasoning (this stuff is pretty potent ... like a umami bomb ... use it sparingly)
1 tsp. of Dijon mustard
1/2 cup of thinly sliced scallions including the green part (or 1/2 cup of chopped fresh chives)
1/4 cup of fresh parsley leaves
1/4 tsp. of sea salt
1/4 tsp. of white pepper
Directions:
Make the Remoulade sauce:
Place all of the sauce ingredients except the sliced scallions or chives in a blender and process them until the mixture is smooth. Transfer the completed sauce to a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and put it into the refrigerator. Put the sliced scallions or chives into a small bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate them until serving time.
Prepare and fry the oysters:
Whisk the dry ingredients together.
Drain the oysters and put them into a bowl with the buttermilk, mix gently, then refrigerate, covered, for 30 minutes.
Remove the oysters from the buttermilk and spread them out on paper towels to absorb excess wetness.
Lay paper towels on top of the oysters and pat gently to remove excess wetness, then remove and discard the top towels.
Heat the peanut oil to 300 to 325 degrees F in a Dutch oven or high sided skillet. Note that you use the lower temperature for larger oysters because they fry for a longer time and you don't want the coating to darken.
Use an instant read thermometer and variable levels of heat to maintain but not exceed the proper frying temperature. Also, you may find it important to use a kitchen timer until you learn to tell by color alone when it is time to flip the oysters during frying or when to remove the oysters when they are done frying.
Dredge four of the oysters in the dry ingredients mixture. You limit the number of oysters to be fried at one time to have minimal effect on the oil temperature.
Fry those oysters for one minute, then flip them over and fry for one more minute. If they are large oysters repeat the flipping/frying steps one time. Remove the fried oysters to a paper towel. Salt them lightly immediately with sea salt and put them into a 200 degrees F warming oven on a rack above a paper towel covered baking sheet.
Repeat the dredging and frying, etc. for the remaining oysters in groups of four, then serve all of them hot.
Spoon the Remoulade sauce very lightly over the oysters and then sprinkle them with the sliced scallions or chives. Alternatively, simply serve a tartar sauce for guests to use.
Keep the bowl of Remoulade sauce or tartar sauce available for guests who want to add more to their portion of the oysters.
Serve a nice light chilled white wine like Pinot Grigio with the oysters.
Enjoy!