I am from New England; oysters and clams on the half shell are a part of summer. One of the best ways to spend an afternoon is sitting at a raw bar, overlooking the ocean, slurping down some freshly shucked clams and oysters, along with a few shrimp cocktails while sipping an ice cold beer. Sure, you could have a fancy umbrella drink, but a beer just goes so perfectly with them. Although shrimp cocktail is not raw, it is a big part of a real raw bar.
Most of the store-bought sauces are mostly ketchup with a little hot sauce of some type and are wicked bland.
A raw bar will include clams and oysters on the half shell — which means they are opened and served on one half of the shell with the other half discarded — and shrimp cocktail. The condiments are simple-to-make sauces, lemon wedges, hot sauces and horseradish. The two most popular sauces are cocktail sauce and mignonette sauce.
There are a lot of recipes for a cocktail sauce and there are many brand-named cocktail sauces you can buy at the market, but it seems to me, most of the store-bought sauces are mostly ketchup with a little hot sauce of some type and are wicked bland.
If you are going to go through the trouble of shucking all those clams and oysters, not to mention the shrimp, you might as well make a good sauce to go with them. Be sure to use all the ingredients, but also be sure to add them more by taste than by the amount in the recipe. I personally like a lot of horseradish and just a little hot sauce for the heat. For the mignonette sauce, I like a simple one, but there are a lot of cool ways to vary this by adding ingredients that are light and not too overpowering, such as cucumber juice.
Cooking the shrimp
This point brings me to cooking the shrimp. I will use a good 1 to 2 tablespoons of whole black peppercorns and four to six bay leaves in the water when boiling them. This will add a ton of flavor to the shrimp. Also, the most important thing to remember about cooking the shrimp is to never drop the shrimp into the boiling water before you get a bowl of ice water to put the cooked shrimp in to stop the cooking process.
When you drop the shrimp into the boiling water, immediately stir them so none clump together. When they look red and white instead of opaque, which will only take a minute or two, pull one out and break it in half. If the center of the shrimp also is solid white instead of opaque, then immediately strain them and get them into the ice water to stop the cooking. There isn’t much worse than rubbery shrimp cocktail.
Shucking oysters
As for the shucking, you will need a special clam knife, as well as an oyster knife, to get the shells open. Before you start to open them, you must be sure they are all still alive. This can be a simple task that turns opening into a real chore. Lightly rinse the clams and oysters in the sink. They will get banged around a little and you want to be gentle because if they are banged hard, they go into super lock down and can be murder to open. If you can’t open them, place them in the freezer for a few minutes and they will relax again.
If any are already open when you rinse them, throw them away. Shellfish must be alive when you start or they can — at the least — make you extremely sick. Also, if they just happen to fall open super easy or have a bad smell, throw them away.
When shucking, be sure to use a fairly thick rag or washcloth to protect your hands because it is not uncommon for the knife to slip, especially when opening the oysters because you are forcing the tip into the oyster before you pop the shell.
Once the shell is popped open a little way, with either the clam or oyster, follow the contour of the top shell half with the blade of your knife to cut the meat away before opening all the way, and lay it onto the bottom half. You want to keep the meat as whole as possible with as much of the juice as possible still in it. Don’t jab at the meat to scrape it off the shell.
The raw bar
Squeeze a little fresh lemon onto the clam or oyster and place a little of either sauce on it. Let it slide off the shell into your mouth. Add a shot of vodka onto the shell with the sauce and lemon for a clam or oyster shooter.
Cocktail Sauce
12 oz. chili sauce
1½ T Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes Tabasco or other hot sauce or to taste
1½ T fresh lemon juice, add 1 T first and the rest to taste
2 T extra hot horseradish or to taste
Pepper and salt to taste
Combine and adjust ingredients to your taste.
Mignonette Sauce
½ C rice vinegar
1 T red vinegar (for color)
1 large shallot, diced small
1 T fresh course ground pepper
Combine and let sit in the refrigerator for a few hours for the flavors to meld.
