On a recent trip to the cabin we tried our hand at making pan fried oysters – and spoiler alert – it was an amazing taste sensation!
A couple friends were travelling on Vancouver Island and we asked them to stop at Fanny Bay and pick us up a tub of fresh oysters.

Rather than getting the usual Fanny Bay oysters, they brought us Mac’s Oysters. To be honest, blindfolded or not, I could not tell the difference between one brand or another.
To start the process, we set up our mise en place (that’s fancy French for we set up our prep station). A bowl of flour, a bowl of whipped up eggs (an egg bath), and a bowl of Panko crumbs.

The process we use sounds funny, but it WORKS – you have a “dry hand” and a “wet hand” and each hand has its own job. Do not let the dry hand try to do the work of the wet hand or vice versa. Chaos will ensue if you let one hand get into the other’s way.
First, take an oyster out of the tub and pat it dry with a paper towel. Then, with your dry hand – we used our left hand as the dry hand – set the dry oyster into the bowl of flour. Coat it with flour completely. Use your dry hand to make sure all surfaces are lightly floured.
Then, using your dry hand, lower the floured oyster into the egg mixture – without getting your dry hand wet! using your wet hand – in our case the right hand – lift the oyster, turn it over, make sure it is wet with egg on all surfaces.
Next, using your wet (right) hand lift the oyster out of the egg bath and lower it into the panko crumbs. Then, using your dry (left) hand, sprinkle panko crumbs all over the oyster.

Using the dry hand-wet hand method as I described above prevents you from getting both your hands coated in massive clumps of egg, flour, and panko. It works because it makes clean up simpler.
After the oysters were floured, egg bathed, and panko-ed, we set them up on a plate before pan-frying them.

When pan frying the oysters we used a non-stick pan with about a centimeter and a half of Canola oil. We heated the oil to approximately 400 degrees because we want to cook the oysters at 375 degrees and once you set the first oyster into the oil, the temperature will drop. This is especially true once we added four oysters to the pan.
It only takes a few minutes for the oysters to brown. After a couple of minutes we used a rubber scraper and a spoon to gently flip the oysters over so that the second side could develop a golden glow.

You may notice that I have said “gently” a few times. This is important because you can’t forget that are dealing with burning hot oil. If you “drop” the oysters into the oil or too-vigorously “flip” the oysters, you may get burned or splattered from the hot oil. Be careful.
After the oysters turned golden brown we let them rest for a minute on a piece of paper towel on a clean plate before eating them.

To eat them, we made a cheap-o version of the oyster po’boy sandwich. A slice of bread with a smear of mayo and some grainy Dijon mustard. Close it up and get it in my belly.
When gently pan fried the way we did them, the oysters had a perfectly crunchy exterior with a lovely creamy interior. Just all the good flavours and textures. We will definitely be doing pan fried oysters again.