Oyster Stew

Every Christmas Eve my family does a dinner of appetizers.  We have shrimp cocktail, cheese and crackers, mini sandwiches, and my personal favorite, oyster stew.  The stew is rich and creamy with a perfect oyster flavor in every bite.

But the sad thing about this meal; we only have it once a year, and that’s just a darn shame.  So when I was home over Christmas I made sure to get the recipe for oyster stew from my mom.  Turns out the credit for this recipe goes to the Ottawa, Illinois hospital circa 1982.

Ingredients

1 pint fresh oysters (or in my case 2 1/2 pints)

1/2 gallon (2 quarts) milk

1/2 cup butter

1 cup oyster crackers

Directions

1.  Place 1/4 cup of butter in a large stock pot and add 1/2 gallon of milk.  Turn heat to medium and allow mixture to get hot but not boil.

2.  While milk is heating up, melt 1/4 cup butter in a large frying pan and add oysters (with juice).  Allow oysters to simmer until the edges start to curl.  ~8-10 minutes.

3.  Once oysters are cooked pour contents of frying pan into the stock pot of milk.  Leave heat on medium and simmer for at least 45 minutes.

4.  Ladle into a bowl and add in a handful of oyster crackers (or pieces of toasted gluten free bread like August did).

Of course, this isn’t a meal meant for every night of the week, but for just one night it was nice to pretend it was Christmas Eve again.