Spring scallops

When put­ting togeth­er my Menu of Memor­ies to cel­eb­rate 22 years of the White House, this dish was high on my list of poten­tial stars. In the end I decided to save it for Fish­Head readers.

Scal­lop sea­son starts just before spring and the shell­fish is one of my favour­ite sea­son­al foods. Cauli­flower has a lovely affin­ity with scal­lops — with its del­ic­ate fla­vour, it is not over­power­ing. The crisps add tex­ture and col­our, and the salt­i­ness of the capers bal­ances the sweet­ness of the scal­lops. This dish is easy to pre­pare — in fact, it can be made in advance with the excep­tion of cook­ing the scal­lops. A per­fect dish to wow your din­ner guests!

Ingredients

Cauli­flower purée

• 300g cauli­flower, trimmed
• 250ml milk
• 30g but­ter

Scal­lops

• 300g scal­lops, cleaned
• 1 golden kūmara
• 60ml cook­ing oil
• 2 tbsp capers
• Lem­on juice
• Olive oil
• Micro­greens to garnish
• Black pep­per and sea salt

Method

Cauli­flower purée (Can be made in advance)

1. Cook the cauli­flower with milk until tender.
2. Strain and reserve cook­ing liquid and blend until smooth with 1/3 of the cook­ing liquid and the butter.
3. Sea­son with salt & pepper.

Scal­lops

1. Trim off the cor­al (the orange part) of the scal­lops and the muscle on the side.
2. Thread the scal­lops onto soaked bam­boo skew­ers to make it easy to turn them dur­ing cooking.
3. Peel and then shave the kūmara — aim for five shav­ings per person.
4. Heat the cook­ing oil in a fry­ing pan, and when hot add the kūmara chips and fry until crispy. Remove and place onto a paper towel.
5. Add the drained capers to the oil — they will puff and go crispy when they hit the hot oil. Remove onto a paper towel.
6. Now cook the scal­lops — remove the oil from the fry­ing pan, then heat until very hot. Put the skewered, room tem­per­at­ure scal­lops into the pan. Cook them quickly — no more than one minute on each side should give good car­a­mel­isa­tion. Remove from the heat and put onto a paper towel.
7. To serve, spoon some cauli­flower purée onto a warmed plate. Remove the scal­lops from the skew­ers and arrange on top of the purée (allow six per per­son), then gar­nish with the kūmara chips and capers, micro­greens, a squeeze of lem­on juice, a drizzle of olive oil, and a twist of pep­per and sea salt.

Serves 4–6