Vietnamese-inspired gin oysters

“I came across a locally distilled gin when I visited the Maltby Street Market. It was called Little Bird Gin, and it surprisingly had great botanicals like grapefruit, orange and ginger. I decided to use it to make some Asian inspired gin-based dressings for freshly shucked oysters.” Luke Nguyen, Luke Nguyen's United Kingdom

• makes

  12

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  5 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 60 ml (¼ cup) gin
• 60 ml (¼ cup) rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp palm sugar
• 3 coriander roots, cleaned and thinly sliced
• 2 red Asian shallots, finely chopped
• 1 lime, juiced
• 12 oysters, freshly shucked
• 500 g coarse sea salt
• 2 red birds-eye chillies, seeded and julienned
• 6 Vietnamese mint leaves, thinly sliced

Instructions

Place the gin, vinegar, fish sauce, palm sugar and coriander roots in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and stand until cool. Stir in the shallots and lime juice.  

Place the sea salt on a serving platter or chopping board, then nestle the oysters in the salt so that each sits flat and you don’t lose any precious juices. Spoon 1 teaspoon of the dressing over each oyster, then garnish with a little chilli and Vietnamese mint. 

  

Photography by Benito Martin. Styling by Lynsey Fryers. Food preparation by Alice Storey and Georgi Larby. 

BO platter and Tam dip bowl, both from Country Road. Artistica serving platter and Artistica round dish, both from Tomkin.

Luke Nguyen's United Kingdom starts Thursday 14 May 2015 at 8pm on SBS ONE and finishes 2 July 2015. Visit the Luke Nguyen's United Kingdom website to catch-up on episodes online, scroll through recipes or find out more about the show.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.