Oysters with Vietnamese Dressing

Ingredients

Oysters

Vietnamese dressing:

Makes 150mL

10mL sesame oil
1 small shallot finely chopped
15 g pickled ginger, chopped
10 g fresh ginger, chopped
1/4 small fresh red chilli, de-seeded & chopped
35mL rice wine vinegar
40mL sugar syrup (equal parts sugar and water dissolved & cooled)
4mL dashi (Japanese dried fish powder)
10mL Kikkoman light soy sauce
15mL pickled ginger juice
10mL nam pla (fish sauce)
2 limes, juiced
Vegetable oil for deep frying
4 shallots, sliced
Freshly ground pepper & salt
Baby coriander or finely chopped coriander

Method

Heat the sesame oil in a heavy-based pan and sweat the shallots, gingers and chilli without colouring. Add the rice wine vinegar and reduce by a third.

Add the sugar syrup, dashi and soy sauce and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and add pickled ginger juice, nam pla and fresh lime juice to taste.

Allow the Vietnamese dressing to cool before serving.

To make the shallots, heat the oil to 170 C in a heavy based saucepan. Add the shallots and cook until crisp and golden, stirring frequently.

Remove from the heat and lift out the shallots using a slotted spoon. Drain on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.

*When the oil has cooled, pass it through a fine sieve into a clean container, ready to use again.

Serving suggestion: Arrange the oysters on a bed of salt or alternatively you could use ice as it allows the oysters to stay stable as to not lose any dressing in transport! Lay the oysters out, spoon over about 1/2 teaspoon of dressing on each and top with some crispy shallots and the coriander.