Recipe: Oyster Stew-soup-whatever

Put one or two redskin potatoes in the microwave, and nuke 'em for for about 8 minutes.
Chop the leaves from a couple of stalks of celery.
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large saucepan.

When the butter is melted, drop in half a chopped onion or a spoonful of minced garlic, as well as the celery leaves. Cook that for a few minutes over medium heat, with a little salt and pepper. If you have onions, cook until they're soft. If you have garlic, cook until it starts to turn golden.

When the potatoes are nuked and a little soft, cut them into chunks (USE AN OVEN MITT FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE) and add them to the pot. They will absorb all the butter -you can drop in another pat if you like. More salt, more pepper. Dice the one or two stalks of celery really really small and drop them in to the pot as well. Cook another 2-4 minutes.

Add fresh oysters. I had a 8 oz refrigerated pack - it looks like a can, with a pull top, but the container is actually plastic. They were good, because they were enormous ('Select' size) and fresh and semi-local...but more than 8 oz would have been even better. (2 cans would have been great, except that would make this $10 soup, which I cannot get behind in our current economic situation.) Stir those in, along with all the liquid from the can, and let them warm up for a minute or two. If they cook too long, they will get rubbery, and if the stick to the bottom, they'll tear and fall apart. Neither of these is a huge tragedy, but I prefer a little undercooked to rubbery.

Cover with 2% milk. Keep the heat at medium or lower - you don't want it to boil. Stir frequently over the next 5 minutes, until it is hot all the way through. Season to taste - I used a small drizzle of fish sauce and a decent shake of soy sauce.




Makes 4 large bowls.
Serve with Italian bread and butter.
We ate every drop.