Not So Bloody Mary Oysters

Recipe: Excerpted with permission from Ho Jiak: A Taste of Malaysia by Junda Khoo, published by Hardie Grant Publishing.

Photo: Alana Dimou

March 08, 2024

A Bloody Mary adds a memorable touch to smoked oysters.

Junda Khoo, Malaysian chef and owner of Sydney restaurant Ho Jiak, wanted to create a dish by smoking oysters with jasmine rice and tea, a method he learned from his favorite Kuala Lumpur restaurant, Wei See Seafood. It wasn’t until his bar manager Jimmy at Ho Jiak made him a Bloody Mary that he thought to combine the brunch cocktail with the cooking method. “It was crazy: the smoky flavour of the oyster spread right through the bloody Mary,” he writes in his new book, Ho Jiak: A Taste of Malaysia. “It was everywhere, you couldn’t get the taste out of your mouth. I turned to Jimmy and said, ‘Let’s put it on the menu.’”

Ingredients

Yield:4

1 cup jasmine rice
2 tsp. jasmine tea leaves
12 oysters, on the shell
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 oz. vodka
4 1/2 oz. tomato juice
Juice of 1/2 lemon
8 dashes Tabasco
8 dashes Worcestershire sauce
8 dashes Sriracha sauce
Pinch of cracked black pepper
Pinch of salt

Tools:wok or pan with a lid, wire rack, bowl

Preparation

Put the rice and tea-leaves at the bottom of a wok or pan with a lid (or substitute a metal bowl for a lid). Place a wire rack above them and then remove the oyster meat from their shells and lay on the rack. Put over a high heat and cover with a lid. Once the rice and tea start to produce smoke, turn the heat down and smoke the oysters for 15 minutes. Transfer the oyster meat to a bowl, coat with the oil and place in the fridge for 10 minutes to chill.

Meanwhile, wash the oyster shells and arrange on a serving platter lined with coarse salt.

For the bloody mary, put the remaining ingredients into a cocktail shaker and fill three-quarters full with ice. Shake well to aerate and mix. Strain evenly into the oyster shells (without the ice), then place an oyster on top of each along with a few drops of the smoke-infused oil they were chilling in.