Brixham bay scallops, cauliflower, hazelnuts, duroc pancetta

Yield 4

Author Steven Farhall

Prep time

19 Min

Cook time

5 Min

Total time

24 Min

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Brixham bay scallops, cauliflower, hazlenuts, duroc pancetta

Scallops are such a luxury in my eyes, i think of them as sweets of the sea. They’re so delicately flavoured even people that don’t particularly like seafood still love them. We have the luxury of living near the south coast and i love the big juicy scallops we get from Brixham bay. Scottish scallops are equally as great and you can regularly get hold of hand dived scallops from Scotland. I always try and get the biggest ones i can make sure you do when speaking to your fishmonger. If you don’t make a fuss then people like me will get all the big ones and you’ll be left with the rest! People are always divided about using the orange roe attached to the mussel of the scallop. I love it but when i serve it to my customers half the time it comes back on the plate. It has a stronger flavour and a spongy texture which i believe puts some people off. In this recipe i cook and dehydrate them then blend it into a crumb with some hazelnuts and duck fat with is baked on top of the scallop. Under our scallops we have a simple cauliflower puree, its a traditional accompaniment, a subtle flavour that doesn’t overpower the dish. Cauliflower has a bitterness that i also love. We finish the dish with some crispy duroc pancetta, a breed of pig with a high amount of fat. This gives a pancetta (made from the belly) an incredibly intense flavour which i love. If you can’t get duroc pancetta use any pancetta but it has to be sliced super thin as you want a super light crisp to garnish the scallop dish.

Ingredients

For the scallops

• 8 fresh scallops in half shell or divers

For the Cauliflower puree

• 1/2 cauliflower
• 100ml cream
• knob butter
• salt
• white pepper

For the chorizo oil

• 100g cured chorizo picante
• 100ml olive oil

For the scallop roe crumb

• 8 scallop roes
• handful white bread trimmings
• handful hazelnuts
• tbsp duck fat

To garnish

• 3 slices duroc pancetta
• Baby herbs

Instructions

To prepare the scallops

1. If you’ve ask for half shell scallops the fishmonger will have removed the frill so you will have the half shell with the mussel, roe and intestinal sack still attached. If you have hand divers they will come complete. if so slide your knife along the inside flat side of the scallop and the shell will open up. Carefully remove the frill from the mussel. This frill can be eaten but we are not using it in this recipe but you could clean off any grit then add it to your cauliflower puree later.
2. Slide your knife under the mussel of the scallop to remove it from the shell.
3. With the water running slowly wash any dirt and grit carefully from the scallop and roe.
4. Remove the roe from the mussel by scraping it with a knife from the mussel. The intestinal sack is next to the roe and its really important to remove and discard this part. Around the scallop is a thin membrane, you can carefully hook and cut the membrane to the edge of the intestinal sac then this makes it easy to remove without damaging the delicate mussel.
5. Keep the roe for the crumb and slice each scallop mussel lengthways ready for cooking.

For the crumb

1. We want to cook and dehydrate the roes until fully dried. Cut the roes into smaller pieces and pan fry until nice and crispy (about 8 minutes).
2. Place on a piece of parchment and dehydrate at 70oC for 8 hours or until fully dried.
3. Cool and blend into a powder in a spice blender.
4. In a food processor put the bread trimmings (torn into small pieces) with the hazelnuts and coral dust and blend into a crumb.
5. In a pan melt the duck fat then add the crumb and cook until lightly toasted. If the crumb seems dry when adding to the oil add more duck fat until it is all soaked up by the crumb. If you add too much fat the crumb will be too soggy so be careful. Don’t cook on too high a heat as this will burn the crumb!

For the cauliflower puree

1. Cut the cauliflower into small florets. I use my ninja soup maker but you can use a pan then blend at the end.
2. Put the cauliflower with the cream, butter and seasoning and cook on a medium heat until soft then blend to a smooth puree.
3. If using a ninja soup maker, throw it all into the blender and hit the sauce button. It takes 30 minutes and does everything for you.

For the chorizo oil

1. Cut the cured chorizo into small cubes then place in a pan with the olive oil.
2. Heat up over a low heat then keep at just below a simmer for 20 minutes to extract the flavours from the chorizo without burning the oil.
3. Strain off the oil.
4. The pieces of chorizo will still have some flavour so can be kept for another dish. We like to add them to a bechamel to make chorizo croquettes.

For the pancetta

1. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking tray.
2. Cut each slice of pancetta in half and lay the slices on top of the parchment.
3. Place another sheet of parchment on top of this and then another baking tray.
4. Put into a hot oven and cook for about 15 minutes until the slices are nice and crispy. If not put them back in until they are.

To cook the dish

1. We use ceramic scallop shells but you can bake the scallops in the half shells they came in.
2. Place a tablespoon of cauliflower puree in the centre of the shell (it can be cold as it will heat up in the oven).
3. Place 2 scallops (4 slices) neatly on top of the puree leaving a space in the middle.
4. Drizzle over the chorizo oil, then with a blowtorch sear the tops of the scallop pieces.
5. Place some crumb in the centre and in between the scallop pieces.
6. Bake the scallops in a hot oven 200oC for 5 minutes.

To garnish

1. Our scallop shells sit nicely on a under plate. If you using the scallop shells they look great if you sit them on a mixture of sea salt mix with water to create a base for the scallop to balance on nicely. Garnish with the crisped piece of pancetta and some baby herbs or chervil sprigs.