It has been one busy week-end at home. For a while I’ve considered long and hard whether I would prepare an entry for this week’s contest. My daughter is turning 2 on Wednesday. Being a weekday, we’ve decided to hold her birthday celebration with her little friends over the weekend at a Play Centre. Overall it was a real success as all the kids had heaps of fun, some didn’t want to go home whilst others are already planning their next birthday at the same place.
I quickly put Lorelai to bed for her nap when we got home. My husband made a detour on the way from the Play Centre to the local KFC. We quickly swallowed our lunch as the action packed day was not yet over. Whilst I was putting my daughter to sleep, my husband was on his way to church where his nephew was having his Confirmation ceremony. And he finally got home just before 4pm we had to get ready again to attend the Confirmation party at my brother-in-law’s place. It was close to 9pm when we eventually got home and let me tell you that I was a wreck. I couldn’t feel my feet and my head was killing me. Must have been the Bombay Gin I drank on an empty stomach.
Sunday morning started the same way the previous day ended; busy. We went to say goodbye to my husband’s cousin who will be moving back to Mauritius for a little while with his family. After that we went grocery shopping and allocated some time to get what we needed for the Cook with Us challenge. As always I’ve been researching an original dish to do justice to this week’s theme. Based on the weather forecast I was always going to pick the seafood mystery theme. And I think I was right to plan this way as this weekend has been one of the worst weatherise for the season. It has rained all weekend and the temperature has not gone past 11 degrees celsius. It even snowed on the high mountains near me. It just give you an idea of how crazy the Melbourne weather was.
I was however lucky to benefit from the small break of sunshine to take some of my pics for this post. They are definitely not what I wanted them to be colour-wise but I’m nevertheless happy with how my platting turn out. I had two dishes in mind all week; one with salmon and the other with scallops. Given the fact that I knew I was gonna be eating away from home most of the weekend I thought the scallops dish would be the most effective. I remember seeing this particular recipe on a local cooking show and made a mental note of the pairing of scallops an pea purée.
However, that particular show didn’t have anything with regards to a cumin foam as an extra layer of flavour to the dish. I can across it while surfing the net and I must admit that it taste amazing. I never thought that such a combination would work so beautifully. Whilst very tired and lacking concentration I had to work really quickly with all the elements to ensure that the purée doesn’t loose its greenish colour quickly while also ensuring that the cumin remains pretty foamy at the time of plating.
I’m really happy with what I’ve achieved in a short amount of time.
I hope you enjoy it too!
Bon appétit!
And good luck to everyone.
INGREDIENTS
Seared Scallops
- 4 Scallops
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 10g butter
- 1/2 lemon
- Salt
- Black Pepper
Pea Purée
- 20g shallots, finely diced
- 1 tbsp oil
- 400g frozen garden peas
- 4g sea salt flakes
- 200ml milk
Cumin Foam
- 55g crème fraîche
- 110ml fish stock
- 2.5g cumin seeds
- 2g sea salt flakes
- 2.5g lecithin
METHOD
- To make the pea purée, sweat the shallots in the oil until soft but not coloured. Add the garden peas, salt, and milk. Simmer for 8 minutes.
- Drain off the milk into a jug, and pour the peas into a blender. Blitz for 2 minutes until ultra smooth adding enough of the milk to make a thickish purée. After blending, cool as quickly as possible, otherwise the colour will begin to fade fairly quickly.
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium flame. When the pan is hot, pour in a spoon of olive oil, add the scallops and cook until golden on one side. After 2 minutes turn over, add butter, season with salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Transfer to a plate along with the cooking juices.
- To make the cumin foam, combine the ingredients and blitz in a blender for 1 minute. Gently heat to approximately 40°C and no higher than 50°C.
- Using a hand blender fitted with an aerator, foam up the mix before letting it rest for a minute.
- Spoon some pea purée into the centre of the bowl. Add the seared cooked scallop, and some pea shoots around the edge. Spoon the foam around to finish and serve immediately.
Stunning! The colors are so beautiful, what a presentation. Well done, love scallops and the pea puree @foodforsoul! Amazing you were able to get all of this done with the crazy weekend :)
Thank you @birdsinparadise. It wasn’t easy and pretty messy to be honest but it was a nice little dish to pull. With the right light I’ve noticed you can get all the colours of a dish to come out. I was lucky for roughly 15 minutes of good light but not more. I’ve read somewhere that if not served (in my case if not taking pictures) straight away the purée will tend to loose of its colours. So I tried to get everything done quickly. However looking at the left over purée this morning they still look pretty green to me. Not sure if I’ve read this wrong!
Great job, We were in the middle of a rain storm when I was trying to get good shots....not so much! I like natural lighting as much as possible. Timing was off this time :) I know what it is like to shoot fast...plus you have a little one around too ;)
That looks amazing @foodforsoul. This dish will rival any 5 star restaurant dish. I love the sweat pea puree with the meaty scallop and the cumin foam is brilliant. Another great post! Good luck!
Thank you @loveself. I was lucky to come across this recipe especially considering the limited time I had to put everything together. Eagerly awaiting to your entry this week.
Beautiful plate! I haven't had scallops in years, they just aren't popular in SA anymore and can't find any locally. Saving this recipe should the local food suppliers finally come to their senses, who doesn't love sea-marshmellows? Your photography is stunning as always, the snaps belong in a recipe book!
Thank you. I’m having good days and bad days with the pictures. I wanted to do a post on the cake I did for my daughter’s birthday but I’m not happy with the pics. The light is just not good at all at the moment. Can’t wait for spring to start in another 2 week’s and we should be there.
It is difficult in winter! Do you have any photo editing programmes? Changing the light fill and white balance might help salvage the pics. Shout if you need any help! Welcome to wetransfer some to me and I'll see if I can tweak them for you! Can't wait for spring either, winter has hit late this year so it's still soup and hotwater bottles on this side of the rock. Happy belated birthday to your little!
Oh thanks for the offer. I think I should be ok. I don’t think we can do much to salvage the pics I just wasn’t inspired when taking them as I was in a rush. I don’t have a particular software except what comes as a default with the Mac. My photographer friend has suggested that I invest in such a tool. I’ll have to think about it.
Oh my this looks beautiful @foodforsoul, I'd love to have one of those!
I know the feeling, it's been hectic here as well!
Thank you @lizelle. It’s crazy how things can get out of hand. At least I know I can whip out this particular recipe fairly quickly. And without the needs for proper plating and pictures it should be a blast lol!
Wow @foodforsoul - thank you for taking the time to still post a recipe. This is simply amazing - happy birthday for your little one !!
Thank you @pandamama. As I’m writing this message I’m also decorating her birthday cake to take to her playgroup tomorrow! Hopefully it turns out ok.
A wonderful dish @foodforsoul! The pairing of scallops and peas is a tasty classic. But what I like is your addition of the cumin foam. This adds an earthy, nutty and slightly bitter accent to balance the sweet scallops and peas. Thanks for sharing this dish with us!
Thank you @chefsteve. My husband really enjoyed the combination of all the elements. He enjoyed the cumin foam with the pea or with the scallops. He wanted to see how each element work in combination.
Your dish looks stunning and vibrant and so delicious as well! I love seafood and the scallops and pea purée combination appeals to me. Butter does magic to the scallops!
Foams - love them. It's amazing how when the base is seasoned right, it just tastes beautiful and plays well in a dish. It adds a different element to the dish. Yours obviously is perfect and a wonderful and welcome layer!
Totally enjoyable, absolutely beautiful! Thanks for another delicious entry @foodforsoul! Thanks as well for fitting an entry in despite the super busy schedule. I totally appreciate it!
Happy birthday to Lorelai! Exciting age!
Lol I like the reference to “exciting age!” More like terrible twos! Only kidding she is a good kid but very needy at the moment. She also has got character. But she does appreciate the little dishes that mummy makes for her and is very excited right now with her cake. Should be a fun day again tomorrow.
Sorry, I made a mistake of posting my comment above using the CwU account.
I bet she really is excited about her cake! Have a fun day tomorrow with her!
Thank you.