With a successful first attempt, we decided to give cooking oysters another go around. Although we still love them as they come, fresh, clean and straight from the shell, its been a good time experimenting with recipes and seeing what else we can do with our favorite bivalve.

Summer weekends out in The Hamptons and Montauk frequently entail roadside lunches of lobster rolls, steamers, and the occasional clam roll. A few fried clams, tarter sauce, and a toasted bun is all it takes to create one of our favorite dishes.

And although it was slightly cooler this past Presidents Day Weekend out East, the sun was shining bright enough for a craving of something summer. Having dined on Linguine and clams the night before, we decided to change things up and make an oyster version of the classic clam roll, minus the bread.

After some recipe browsing, one by Taste of Home seemed to fit just what we were looking for. Taking the healthful route, it called for “faux frying” the oysters, and serving them with a homemade Jalapeno Mayonnaise sauce. Based on our pantry, and personal taste, a few alterations were made to the original recipe, with rave reviews to follow. We will definitely be making these little “Oyster Nuggets” again.

Blue Point Oyster Nuggets

Ingredients:

18 Shucked Blue Point Oysters, juices drained

3/4 cup flour

2 eggs

1 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

2/3 cups grated parmesan cheese (original recipe called for Romano)

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

For the Jalapeno Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup mustard (we did not have Mayonnaise as the original recipe called for)

1/4 cup sour cream

2 medium jalapenos, finely chopped

2 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Prepare three separate bowls

One with flour, salt, and pepper. The second with two whisked eggs, and the third with bread crumbs, cheese, parsley, and garlic salt.

Dip each oyster in the flour mixture, followed by the egg mixture, and finally the bread crumbs, placing the finished oysters on a greased baking sheet. After all of them have been coated, drizzle with a little olive oil and bake for 15-20 minutes.

While the oysters are baking, combine all the ingredients for the dip.

Serve the warm oysters with the dipping sauce.

These little nuggets were a huge hit. Next time we will definitely need to make a bigger batch!