Oysters: Recipes that Bring Home a Taste of the Sea

by Cynthia C. Nims

For oyster lovers everywhere, this luscious cookbook features recipes, shucking instructions, and the local farming success story of the many delicious oysters from the Pacific Coast. From Hangtown Hash with Fried Eggs to Half-Shell Oysters with Kimchi-Cucumber Relish, this gorgeous cookbook features 30 recipes, ideas for what to drink with oysters, and tips for buying, storing, and shucking to bring out the “oh!” in oysters. Since oysters are grown and harvested in some of the most beautiful environments on earth, the book is brimming with scenic as well as food photography. The delectable oysters grown along the West Coast—which include Pacific, Kumamoto, Olympia, and Eastern and European Flat species--are the stars of this beautiful cookbook celebrating oysters.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food and Drink

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 19, 2016

About the author

Cynthia Nims is a lifelong Northwesterner who grew up surrounded by some of the best food in the country. She has authored and co-authored over 20 books; the most recent is Oysters, released in January 2016 (Sasquatch Books). Cynthia holds the Grand Diplôme d’Etudes Culinaires from La Varenne cooking school in France, where she worked on numerous cookbooks with owner Anne Willan. Previously editor of Simply Seafood magazine and food editor of Seattle Magazine, Cynthia is now a contributor to Cooking Light, Alaska Airlines Magazine, Sunset, and other magazines. Among previous book projects is Salty Snacks, Gourmet Game Night and Rover's: Recipes from Seattle's Chef in the Hat. She also contributed content on Northwest cuisine to Williams-Sonoma’s Savoring America and to Culinaria: The United States. Cynthia is an active member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (currently Immediate Past President of the board of directors) and Les Dames d’Escoffier. Her blog, Mon Appétit, can be found at www.monappetit.com.

Reviews

[Matthew Laflamme]

My wife got me this book for Christmas. I don’t really appreciate grabbing a recipe book. That is basically all about the author listening to the way that she wants to talk three or four paragraphs. I’ve read through that we were recommending what type of wine to have with your oysters, never did get to the recommendation until the next page and then she danced around the recommendation because she would recommend different things depending on how they were prepared start with a preparation give a recommendation. I don’t like reading 34 paragraphs of gibberish of reiterated nonsense before I get to the meat and potatoes. I only rated a star because I had to.

[Nand]

Excited to try all (or most) of these varietals. To date I'm aware of having tried Hama Hama, Fanny Bay, Kumamoto and some kind that literally tasted of watermelon! The local one's around California I had aplenty, but those I prefer to cook - Oysters Rockefeller anyone? I know I've had others on the east coast. If I could only remember the names. This was a wonderful gift from a cousin that I always thought was grossed-out by my indulgence in this bit of cuisine.

[Anna Clark]

Given this book by a neighbor for my bday- loved reading about the history of oysters, their impact on the environment and new recipes. The perfect companion to the five dozen oysters I harvested this week!!

[Jon]

Nims provides a great deal of information on the history, biology, and cultivation of oysters, and the many ways they can be prepared. In my years in the restaurant business, I think I've tried most of them, but there are always a few new twists to be found. I think a few of the tips and recipes she showcased may end up on my personal menu pretty soon.

To rewrite an old cliché, there are two types of oyster eaters; those who enjoy the fresh taste of the sea, and the delicate texture of a newly shucked oyster, and those who enjoy smothering the oyster with enough other distractions to ensure that they can forget they're actually eating one.

Come to think of it, there are a number of foods people regard that way.

Nims, however, is of the first sort, and in most of the recipes the ingredients are simply there to enhance in subtle ways the experience of slurping a succulent oyster. Raw oysters with mignonettes, relishes and granites, baked, grilled and smoked oysters, fried and sautéed, steamed and poached, they're all here.

I think a copy of this book may make its way to my kitchen shelves pretty soon.