Oysters, shrimp stars of Southern-style ‘sammie’
As I’m making a trip down to New Orleans this month (half business, half pleasure), Big Easy recipes have been on my mind. You’ll discover a little taste of my most treasured city in America to visit in these quick, easy oyster and shrimp po’boys.
My favorite “Sammie” in the Big Easy is at Domilise’s Po-Boy & Bar on Annunciation Street. This is my take on the establishment’s best sandwich of all.
Oysters are one of my most cherished foods — briny, alluring and glorious with very little fuss. When testing this recipe for my most recent cookbook,
America Farm to Table (Grand Central Life & Style, $35), we got our oysters from the Pemaquid Oyster Co. in Damariscotta, Maine, where Jeff “Smokey” McKeen raises over a million oysters each year.
Oddly enough, my favorite version of the greatest remoulade sauce on the entire planet is served at Pearl Oyster Bar in New York’s West Village, where chef Rebecca Charles makes the best tartar sauce I’ve ever tasted.
I modified the recipe for this po’boy, but when I eat it, I am back on Annunciation Street, dreaming.
OYSTER AND SHRIMP
PO’BOY
Serves 4 Ingredients: 4 cups peanut oil, for frying 1 cup all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning 2 large eggs 1/2 cup Texas Pete hot sauce 16 medium shrimp, peeled and
deveined 16 oysters, shucked 4 soft hoagie rolls 1 cup remoulade (see second
recipe) 2 ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced 1/4 head iceberg lettuce, shredded Kosher salt and freshly ground black
pepper Splash of red-wine vinegar
For the remoulade:
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise 1/4 cup Creole mustard Zest and juice of 1 lemon 1 tablespoon pimenton (Spanish
paprika) 2 teaspoons prepared horseradish 1 teaspoon sweet pickle juice or
sugar 1 teaspoon hot sauce 2 scallions, minced 1 rib celery, cut into fine brunoise 1 tablespoon tiniest capers, or large
capers, chopped
Directions:
Before you start cooking the shrimp and oysters, make the remoulade: In a bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon zest, lemon juice, pimenton, horseradish, pickle juice or