Even if you aren’t a lover of seafood, you might end up liking this dish, for the soft and fleshy texture of scallops appeals to everyone. The dish has unique flavours owing to an array of ingredients like foie gras, seafood sauce and accompaniments like watermelons marinated in Sambuca, the Italian anise-flavoured liqueur.
Pan fried scallops with foie gras, sambuca melon and curried seafood bisque
Ingredients
Scallops – 2 pieces
Basil leaf – a few
Lemon – one
Olive oil - 2 ml
Water melon cubes - 4.
Sambuca – 2 ml
Spinach (blanched & chopped) – 10 gm
Garlic - 2 gm
Ginger- 2 gm
Foie gras – 1
Caper berry – 1
Salt & pepper – for seasoning
Seafood bisque
Prawn head -100 gm
Leeks -10 gm
Celery -10 gm
Carrot -5gm
Onion -5 gm
Tomatoes chopped – 50 gm
Curry powder – 20 gm
Garlic - few cloves
Oil – 10 ml
Salt & pepper for seasoning
Balsamic reduction
Balsamic vinegar - 50 ml
Sugar – 30 gm
Method
Marinate scallops with olive oil, lemon juice, chopped basil, salt and pepper. Marinate melon cubes with Sambuca. Keep aside for one hour. Meanwhile make seafood bisque.
Method for Seafood bisque
Chop leeks, celery, carrot, onion separately. Place a saucepan on medium flame with oil, put all chopped vegetables, curry powder and garlic in pan, sauté for two minutes. Then add cleaned prawn head and roast till it acquires a pale colour, add chopped tomatoes in it, add 2 cups of water and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Transfer the mixture into a blender. Blend into a smooth puree.
Return to flame and cook for 15 minutes again. Strain with very fine wire strainer. Add seasoning. Thicken with tapioca.
Method for Balsamic reduction
Take balsamic vinegar and cook over a small flame. Let it reduce. Finish it with sugar.
In a non-stick pan, sear scallops on very high heat from both sides till dark brown in colour.
In a separate pan, sauté spinach with garlic and ginger.
Sear foie gras in a pan from both sides. In a serving plate, place scallops on garlic wilted spinach, put foie gras slice on the scallops, pour some seafood sauce on the side, garnish it with balsamic reduction and serve with sambuca marinated melons and caperberry.
About the chef
Nishant Choubey is the Executive Sous Chef at Bird Hospitality Group. A graduate from IHM, Bhopal, he specialises in New World Cuisine. He brings to the table his experience accumulated over 14 years of working as a chef after starting his career with Taj Coromandel, Chennai, and thereafter working at various places such as the Oberoi, Jaipur, Jumeriah Group in Dubai, Olive and finally Cibo as the Executive Chef.
