Sydney Rock Oysters with Finger Lime

the finest use of Australia's native citrus: freshly shucked Sydney rock oysters served on ice with the glassy vesicles of the finger lime spooned over, and nothing else at all

Origin: Australia

From the journey of Lime.

The finger lime, Citrus australasica, grows wild in the subtropical rainforest and dry vine scrub of the border country between southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales, and the Bundjalung, Yugambeh, and neighbouring peoples gathered and ate it there for thousands of years before any European saw it. It is unlike every other citrus on earth: the fruit is a slender cylinder rather than a sphere, and inside it there are no segments at all but hundreds of free, firm, glassy vesicles that pour out of a squeezed fruit like roe and burst separately on the tongue with a clean, resinous, almost effervescent acidity. The settler kitchen ignored it for the better part of two centuries. It was taken up by Australian chefs only in the nineteen-nineties, sold under the trade name citrus caviar, and its natural partner was identified at once and has not been bettered since. The Sydney rock oyster, Saccostrea glomerata, is a slow-growing native oyster of the New South Wales estuaries, smaller, sweeter, and more mineral than the Pacific oyster, and it wants no mignonette, no shallot, and no Tabasco. A spoonful of finger lime seasons it exactly, adding acid without liquid and perfume without weight, and the dish is a complete argument, made in two ingredients, for the seriousness of Australian native food.

Ingredients

Oysters

  • 24 whole Sydney rock oysters, live, in the shell

To Finish

  • 4 whole finger limes, ripe
  • 1 pinch sea salt flakes (optional)

To Serve

  • 1 kg crushed ice, to serve
  • 1 handful seaweed or coarse rock salt, to steady the shells (optional)

Method

  1. Chill the oysters thoroughly, keeping them cupped side down in the refrigerator under a damp cloth. Discard any whose shell is open and does not close when tapped.
  2. Halve the finger limes crosswise and squeeze each half gently from the closed end so that the vesicles extrude into a small chilled bowl. Work over the bowl and do not press hard.
  3. Shuck the oysters: hold each one cupped side down in a folded cloth, work the point of a shucking knife into the hinge, twist to break it, then run the blade along the inside of the flat top shell to sever the muscle and lift the lid away.
  4. Slide the knife under each oyster to free it from the cup, checking that no shell remains, and set the oysters in their cupped shells on a platter of crushed ice, steadied on seaweed or rock salt so they sit level and lose none of their liquor.
  5. Spoon roughly half a teaspoon of finger lime vesicles onto each oyster, add the barest pinch of sea salt if the oysters are mild, and serve at once with a cold, dry white wine.

Notes

Finger limes are sold fresh in Australia from about March to June and are exported frozen and in vacuum-packed vesicles at other times; frozen vesicles are perfectly good here, since they hold their shape, and should be scattered on straight from the freezer. If you cannot obtain them, the honest substitution is not another citrus but a restrained mignonette; a squeeze of ordinary lime gives acid but none of the texture that makes the dish. Pacific oysters (Magallana gigas) will serve if Sydney rocks are unavailable, though they are larger, brinier, and less sweet. The same treatment is excellent on raw scallops, on cured kingfish or ocean trout, and, more surprisingly, spooned over a slice of ripe mango or over a dish of vanilla ice cream.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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