Huîtres

Lest anyone think this is a blog for rabbits, I *did take advantage of the T-bone steak special at Central Market, and we'll get to those later.

For those of you just joining us, I'm cooking through Glorious French Food by James Peterson, though not in any regimented way. JP suggests something I hadn't heard before: grilling oysters. Then topping each with a little curry butter before eating. Sounds awesome, but as I have no curry powder I made do with melting butter and adding turmeric, cumin, and a bit of paprika.

Also I didn't feel like lighting the grill, so i used my tava:



He said they'd let go of their shells and I could just pull off the top half, but this was 84% false (based on my sample size of 8 oysters, only one of which cooperated). For the others I just used my clam knife ..



.. which JP said wouldn't work, but which worked fine.

Incidentally these are all for me, 'cause for an inexplicable reason no one else in the family can hang with oysters. Their loss:



The other lunch item was pretty enough for a big pic. Salad of almond-crusted tuna with tarragon and baby spinach. Basic champagne vinaigrette on it, and I think the black spots are called lava salt, although they probably don't contain any actual lava. Bam!



This was also seared in my tava. Tava tava tava tava tava!