Cooking with Carosi – Smoky “Baked” Oysters on the Half-Shell

“On a trip to the San Francisco Bay area in California, as a young teenager, I was introduced to grilled and or baked oysters. On the coast, outdoors, in wind-swept seating, there is a huge platter of smoky local oysters and a giant loaf of San Francisco artisan sourdough bread to devour them with. Shortly after that, my family and I moved to the Pacific Northwest and, to my amazement, right on the shores of the Hood Canal. Although into a micro town, specifically the unincorporated community, or census-designated seat in Kitsap County named Seabeck.

Lucky for me, this former mill town sits across the Hood Canal from some of the most fertile oyster flats in the world. And holy shit, to my amusement, you can gather your wild tide-tumbled oysters here in season! If you do want to gather your own, I would suggest getting intimate with the state rules and regulations and the local tide charts and be sure you have proper tidal oyster gear like gloves, brushes, baskets, and an oyster knife cause we shuck on the beach in the Hood.

As youngsters, we would generally hop in a small outboard-driven boat and head across the almost 1½ mile-wide canal to where Highway 101 makes its way up and down the Hood Canal, one of America’s only fjords—tracing the rugged coastline with misty mountain peaks on one side and super calm rocky coastal mudflats and beaches on the other. Almost all the side roads inland lead to mossy forests full of bubbling freshwater rivers, creeks, and streams, some with massive waterfalls. These woods are abundant with many wild mushrooms and a large concentration of backwoods cannabis growers. Turn toward the long and narrow canal, and you can quickly see how it is the geographical point used to separate the Kitsap Peninsula (where I grew up) from the Olympic Peninsula and is also a tributary for all those smaller rivers. Most notably, the Skokomish, Hamma Hamma, Duckabush, Dosewallips, and the Big Quilcene Rivers. The mouths of all these rivers are rich with oysters, but don’t tell too many people.

One of my favorite ways to prepare fresh oysters, other than in the nude – shucked + slurped, is to grill them over an open campfire on the beach they were harvested from or bake them in a hot ass oven and thoroughly saturate them in this smoky cannabis butter recipe I’ve provided you. The taste is so reminiscent of those days in the Bay area; I’m always fascinated by how food creates many memories and traditions. For me, one of those traditions is heading up Highway 101 until I hit Olympic Oyster Company in Lilliwap to grab a big bag of cocktail-sized slurpers (aka wild oysters) while stoned out of my gourd. Continuing to find a coastal campsite to build a fire and grill the oysters, I will inevitably enjoy directly across the water from where I grew up. The Pacific Northwest is excellent for quality craft cannabis, incredible wild foods, and phenomenal outdoor adventures. I regularly live it and eat it. Get baked!”