Hors d'eourve:
Crab Cakes
Oysters
Crab Cakes

ingredients
3/4 pound crabmeat (claw crabmeat is a tasty and inexpensive option for crab cakes)
1 chopped yellow onion
1 chopped red bell pepper
2 chopped ribs of celery
2 teaspoon each of dried basil and dried thyme
1-1/2 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 tablespoon mustard
2-1/2 tablespoons real mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tablespoon Tabasco, Crystal or your favorite Louisiana hot sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
French bread crumbs
Egg wash (2-3 eggs, lightly beaten)
Flour
Vegetable Oil
Instructions
Mix crabmeat, vegetable mixture, mustard, mayonnaise, salt and pepper with enough bread crumbs to hold the cakes. Form 2-3 ounce cakes. Dredge in seasoned flour, egg wash, and seasoned breadcrumbs (sequentially). Pan-fry until golden and finish browning in oven.
Serve with a drizzle of remoulade sauce. mix crabmeat, vegetable mixture, mustard, mayonnaise, salt and pepper with enough bread crumbs to hold the cakes. Form 2-3 ounce cakes. Dredge in seasoned flour, egg wash, and seasoned breadcrumbs (sequentially). Pan-fry until golden and finish browning in oven.
Serve with a drizzle of remoulade sauce.
Oysters

Ingredients
Two dozen fresh oysters on the half shell, oyster liquor reserved
4 springs flat-leaf Italian parsley
4 green onions (including the green part)
fresh celery leaves
fresh tarragon leaves
fresh chervil leaves
1/2 cup dried fresh French bread crumbs
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Tabasco or Crystal hot sauce, to taste
2 tablespoons Herbsaint or Pernod (optional)
Rock salt or kosher salt
Instructions
Mince together the parsley, green onions, celery leaves, tarragon and chervil as finely as you possibly can. Take as much time as you need. Mince them more finely than anything you've ever minced in your life. Mix this together with the bread crumbs and the softened butter into a mortar and mix the whole thing together into a smooth paste, but do leave a little texture to it. (You can do this in a blender,
a food processor, or a mortar) Season to taste with salt and pepper, Tabasco or Crystal and, if you like, the
Herbsaint.
Preheat your broiler. Lower the top rack to the middle of the oven. Spread the rock salt (preferable) or kosher salt over a large baking sheet; this will keep the oysters level under the broiler, so that they won't tip over. Moisten the salt very slightly. Plant the shells in the salt, making sure they're level. Place one oyster in each shell, plus a little bit of oyster liquor. Spoon an equal amount of the prepared herb/butter mixture over each oyster.
Place the baking sheet on the middle rack