Top off Oysters are Wonderful
Although there are plenty of restaurants serving locally grown oysters in Newport, RI where I live, and although fish markets do sell them as well, no one that I found could sell me frozen oysters which I could keep in my freezer ready to go. While glued to my PC and the Internet recently I discovered TAYLOR SHELLFISH FARMS.
What attracted me to their products especially was the availability of TOP OFF oysters, flash frozen, and ready to go. My order of 30 oysters and a container of shucked oyster meat was shipped overnight by Fed Ex and arrived colder-than-cold frozen in dry ice. Last night I baked 8 of them topped with small-sized breadcrumbs combined with parmesan cheese, parsley, chopped (slightly sautéed) shallots, ground pepper and a small dollop of butter on top. I purposely went light on the butter to keep them a bit healthier than some recipes I have seen online(some calling for a whole stick of butter for about the same number of oysters), and they were wonderfully flavorful just the same.
And, given the importance of zinc to our immune system health especially during flu season and the vicious pandemic, and that a Google search told me that 6 oysters can provide 36mg or 327% of the recommended DV—the highest source of zinc in food--, eating them, for me, is a no brainer!
As for my shucked oysters, I plan on having them over pasta with garlic and olive oil this week.