On fish Friday we went to our fishmongers he usually has a great selection of fish but due to the wonderful British weather ( or not) we have been having they hadn’t brought much in from their boats. We managed to get some seabass and hake and decided as we hadn’t spent as much as we usually do we would treat ourselves to a great selection of shellfish instead. We bought crab, clams (dinner tomorrow), Scottish langoustines (recipe next) and half a dozen of Cornish rock oysters. We had heard of Rockefeller oysters but hadn’t made it ourselves as yet, so thought we would give it a go. Our fail in this recipe was when we got home we realised we didn’t have an oyster shucker so we had to drive into town and ended up walking from one end of Tunbridge wells to the other stopping in 4 cookware stores on the way, luckily our final resort an independent shop in the Pantiles had some but we suprised to find they had a range from a fiver to fifty pounds! We managed to settle on one for under a tenner that had a wooden rest with it too.  I must say these oysters were to die for, we only got 6 and we both agreed we could eat them all to ourselves so next time it will be a full dozen!

Ingredients

• 1  half dozen small oysters in the shell
• 30g butter softened (I added black pepper and lemon zest to mine)
• A handful of finely chopped spinach
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1/2 shallot, finely chopped
• 4 cherry tomatoes finely diced
• 1 slice of streaky bacon, cooked and finely chopped
• 1 slice of bread, blitzed to make breadcrumbs
• 1 small lemon, juice evenly squeezed over oysters, zest in butter
• 10g Parmesan cheese, grated

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 180 degrees. Place oysters, whole in shell, on a hot griddle pan and cook for about 5 minutes, until shells begin to bubble and steam and slightly pop open.
2. Let cool or wearing gloves (to insulate hands), remove an oyster shell from pan, and while holding in gloved hand, place shucking blade into crack opening and twist to open the shell. Pull open shell, and run blade on top of connecting muscle to release oyster from the top half of shell. Reserve as much of the internal juices as you can, and place half shell on a baking tray (we used rice as a mound to keep them even). Discard top half of shell. Repeat with remaining oysters.
3. Top the oysters with a knob of butter  then layer by adding the garlic and shallot, bacon, spinach, tomato, Parmesan, lemon juice, and breadcrumbs.
4. Place in oven for 5 minutes then finish under the grill for 2-3 minutes
5. Serve hot.