A mignonette is shallot, vinegar and pepper, and it exists to cut the salt of an oyster. The Raspberry Vinaigrette turns up already holding most of that: shallot, raspberry vinegar for the sharpness, pepper, and enough honey to stop it turning severe. So it wants almost nothing done to it. More shallot, a lot of cracked pepper, a few fresh raspberries crushed through for colour and grip, half an hour in the fridge. Resist adding vinegar. The jar has done that job. Sydney rock oysters if you can get them: smaller, more mineral, and they stand up to it better than a Pacific.
45 mins, 30 of them in the fridge. Makes 24.
Ingredients
- 24 Sydney rock oysters, freshly shucked
- 45ml Plateit Raspberry Vinaigrette
- 1 French shallot, very finely diced
- 10 Raspberries, crushed
- Black pepper, cracked, generous
- Crushed ice, to serve
Method
- Dice the shallot as fine as you can manage. Fine matters here, you want it to sit on the oyster rather than roll off it.
- Stir the shallot, Plateit Raspberry Vinaigrette and crushed raspberries together in a small bowl. Crack a lot of pepper through it. No extra vinegar: taste it, the dressing is already sharp enough to cut an oyster.
- Chill 30 mins. The shallot softens and goes pink. There is oil in a vinaigrette that a classic mignonette does not have, so it will separate. Stir it again before it goes near the table.
- Shuck the oysters at the last minute and keep the liquor in the shell. That liquor is half the flavour and people pour it away.
- Oysters on crushed ice. Half a teaspoon of mignonette on each, no more. The oyster is the point.
Do this: Keep whatever mignonette is left. It dresses a crab or prawn salad the next day and it is better on day two.
