Charcoal-Fired Bodie Island Oysters with Chipotle-Garlic Butter and Seaweed

Charcoal-Fired Bodie Island Oysters

Makes a dozen grilled oysters

Kristin and I did a dumb thing. We traveled all over the South on our stomachs for five weeks this past summer. Dumb because COVID-19 was ravaging the country.  Most everyone we knew was hunkered down at home awaiting the all clear.  To be fair, most of the time I cooked in the houses we rented and when I wasn’t chained to the stove, we practiced proper social distancing etiquette.

The seafood in and around the Outer Banks of North Carolina is the best I’ve ever tasted; it’s so fresh it’s almost like it jumped out of the water and onto the grill. Google Bodie Island oysters and behold. For the money, these were the best oysters we had the entire trip. Prepare em simply, like I did at our little cottage in the forgotten fishing village of Englehard, North Carolina.

Ingredients

• 1 dozen Bodie Island oysters (or other large, briny oysters, shucked on the half shell)
• 8 oz. whole, unsalted butter
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons canned chipotle in adobo sauce (pureed together)
• 2 teaspoons freshly minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
• ½ teaspoon Tajin
• ¼ cup wakame (sesame flavored prepared seaweed salad), for garnish
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish

Special Equipment

• Food processor
• Charcoal grill with cast-iron grates
• Tongs

Procedure

Place the butter, salt, chipotle in adobo, garlic, lemon juice and Tajin in the work bowl of the food processor and blend to a smooth paste. Wrap in plastic wrap into a log shape and place in the freezer.

Shuck the oysters, making sure to capture every bit of the briny juice in the shell. Roast them on the grill until the juice starts to bubble. Add a thin slice of the chipotle butter right out of the fridge or freezer and roast just until the butter melts.

Garnish with a little wakame and sliced scallions.