Having an oyster roast? If so, you might want to “dress up” some of the oysters for your guests. By just having a few extra ingredients near the grill, plain oysters can easily be transformed into truly spectacular oysters – the perfect ingredient for great entertaining! These oyster recipes also make tasty appetizers and are an excellent way to use any leftover oysters to make quick, easy meals for your family.

Oysters Rockefeller: Thoroughly drain one cup of cooked chopped spinach. Mix the spinach with one tablespoon of chopped onions, a dash of celery salt, and a tablespoon of melted butter.  Place a spoonful of the mixture on opened oysters on the half shell. Top with real bacon bits and grill or run under the broiler until oysters are curled on the edges.

Oysters scampi: Open the raw oysters and place them on a cookie sheet, with the shells. Drizzle melted butter, lime or lemon juice,  and minced garlic on top and grill or broil until done.

Crab-topped oysters: Open raw oysters and place them, shell and all, on a cookie sheet. Top each oyster with a spoonful of real crabmeat. Use the refrigerated canned type – not the kind in the flat cans that don’t need refrigeration. On top of the crab meat, place a spoon of finely grated mozzarella cheese. Drizzle a little melted butter on top and grill or broil until cheese melts and oysters are done. This is my favorite way to eat roasted oysters! Yum!

Bacon oysters: Place a small square of hickory-smoked bacon on top of each opened oyster. Grill or broil until bacon is done and the edges of the oysters are curled.

Parmesan oysters: Open the oysters and place them on a cookie sheet. Top with melted butter, parmesan cheese, fresh basil, and a dash of garlic salt. Grill or broil until done.

Stuffed oysters: Empty the contents of a stuffing mix, like Stove Top, into a blender or food processor and make fine crumbs. Open the oysters and leave the oysters on the bottom shells. Place on a pan. On each oyster, place a spoon of crumbs and drizzle generously with melted butter. Grill or bake until done.

Cajun oyster po’ boy: This is a spinoff of the traditional po’ boy sandwich. In the traditional sandwich, the oysters are fried. For this one, they’re roasted. Split a hoagie roll or a loaf of French bread in half lengthwise. Spread the halves with butter and toast until lightly cooked. Assemble cooked, shucked oysters on the bottom half of the loaf or roll and top with lettuce, thinly sliced tomatoes, and Cajun remoulade sauce. The recipe for the sauce follows.

Cajun remoulade sauce: place one cup mayonnaise, two teaspoons Dijon mustard, one tablespoon ketchup, one stalk of celery, one tablespoon worcetershire sauce, four teaspoons paprika, one teaspoon cayenne pepper, one teaspoon minced garlic, Louisiana hot sauce to taste, three teaspoons grated horseradish, and a dash of salt and pepper in a food processor or blender and puree. Cover and place in the refrigerator.

Okay, readers. I’m going to share my “secret sauce” recipe with you. Every time I’m invited to a low country boil or an oyster roast, the host or hostess requests that I bring my cocktail sauce. One local businessman even wants to bottle and sell it on a commercial basis! It’s wonderful on oysters, shrimp, crab cakes, and fish. I can’t give you the measurements because I don’t use any. Just tweak the amounts until you like the taste! Here are the ingredients: Heinz ketchup, fresh grated horseradish, lime juice,  Tabasco sauce, and sugar or Splenda. I don’t really know why folks love this so much. I think it’s the lime juice – it gives the sauce a different taste than lemon juice does.