Roast Orkney Scallops With Slow Cooked Pumpkin, Hazelnuts, Citrus Dressing and Red Chicory Salad recipe by Dan Fletcher

Dan Fletcher

Dan Fletcher

3rd May 2018
Dan Fletcher

Roast Orkney Scallops With Slow Cooked Pumpkin, Hazelnuts, Citrus Dressing and Red Chicory Salad recipe by Dan Fletcher

Roast Orkney Scallops With Slow Cooked Pumpkin, Hazelnuts, Citrus Dressing & Red Chicory Salad (Feeds four) recipe by Dan Fletcher, head chef at Fenchurch.

Scallops are one of my absolute favourite ingredients, amazingly unique and incredibly delicious, a real treat - making this dish one for a special occasion.

At the restaurant we use hand-dived Scallops from the North East coast and isles of Scotland famed for their unbelievable size and quality, for this recipe the most important thing, as with all fish or shellfish, is that they are FRESH nice firm scallops with translucent look and a smell of the sea.

Ingredients

  • 12 Hand Dived King Scallops
  • 1 Iron bark pumpkin or buttercup pumpkin
  • 100g hazelnuts
  • 50ml hazelnut oil
  • 2 lemons juiced and zested
  • 2 limes juiced and zested
  • 2 oranges juiced and zested
  • 6 banana shallots finely diced
  • 100ml best quality olive oil
  • 1 smashed garlic clove
  • 2 heads of red chicory

Method

King Scallops
Heat a large heavy based frying pan until very hot with a little oil Starting at 12 oclock working clockwise place the scallops into the pan, after 1 minute of cooking begin turning the scallops over - they should be nicely caramelised on one side. After another minute add a large tablespoon of butter, 30 seconds longer and as the butter caramelises add a good squeeze of lemon and remove the scallops from the pan.
Slow Roasted Pumpkin
Slice horizontally through the pumpkin and remove all the seeds and soft pumpkin flesh to create two pumpkin cups Dress the inside of these with a good splash of olive oil, a smashed garlic clove, a sprig of rosemary, thyme and a bay leaf, a good pinch of salt and pepper then wrap these up in tin foil and bake at 140/150oC for around 2 hours until the pumpkin is very soft and sweet
Pumpkin puree
Take half of the baked pumpkin, unwrap from the tin foil and remove the garlic and herbs. Carefully scoop out the soft centre into a sauce pan Add around 100ml double cream Bring to the boil and blend until smooth
Hazelnut Dressing
Roast hazelnut until dark golden brown Crush the nuts until small and evenly sized Season with salt and dress with hazelnut oil
Chicory Salad With Citrus Dressing
Add the diced shallots to a saucepan and soften in a little olive oil Add all the juices and the garlic clove and reduce the liquid by half Finish with the zest and the rest of the olive oil Sweeten with a small pinch of sugar if required Dress the chicory to complete the salad

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