Buttermilk fried oysters with bread and butter pickles

Method

1. For the oysters:

2. Pre heat a deep-fat fryer to 180 degrees Celsius.

3. In a medium mixing bowl, place the plain flour.

4. In another mixing bowl add the buttermilk and hot sauce and mix well.

5. Before beginning the dredging process, add 1tbsp of the buttermilk and hot sauce mix to the flour and mix through, forming little clumps throughout the flour mix. This will result in a crispier and crunchier coating on the oysters.

6. Working in batches, add oysters to the flour mix and coat. Shake off excess and then dip in the buttermilk and hot sauce mixture. Drain off the excess liquid and return once more to the flour mixture, coat well and shake off excess flour. Transfer the coated oysters to a plate or tray ready for frying.

7. This is not a step I like to do ahead of time, the buttermilk and hot sauce will start breaking down the oysters.

8. Depending on the size of your fryer work in batches when frying, I do no more than 10 oysters at a time.

9. Fry for 2 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper to remove the excess oil, sprinkle with sea salt toss with more hot sauce!

10. For the pickles:

11. In a small heavy-based pot on medium high heat add the coriander seeds, turmeric, salt, sugar and apple cider vinegar and bring to the boil to dissolve the sugar.

12. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

13. Slice the cucumbers in half, use a tsp to remove the seeds and cut into 1-2cm chunks.

14. Once the pickle solution is cool add the cucumbers.

15. Leave for a couple of hours and the pickle solution will draw moisture out of the cucumbers and increase the volume of the pickle solution.

16. Store in sterile jar in the refrigerator.