scallops
- 2 large Orkney scallops
- 1 white beetroot
- 1 Granny Smith apple
- 1 lime
- 1l apple juice
- Oscietra caviar
- Apple marigold leaves
- Wood sorrel
- Lemon sorrel
- Dill sprigs
- Dill oil
Allister Barsby
On the menu at Hide & Fox in Kent.
sauce
Make the sauce, sweat the shallots down in a knob of butter until softened with no colour, add the button mushrooms with a pinch of salt and sweat until slippery in look.
Add the wine and reduce by half, followed by the fish stock and again reduce by half. Finally pour in the cream, bring to a simmer and cook out for 20 mins.
Pull off the stove and add a small handful of bonito flakes and leave to infuse for 10 mins. Press through a fine sieve, season with salt, plenty of lemon juice and correct the consistency if needed.
To make the apple caramel, reduce the apple juice slowly until it reaches a deep caramel colour and syrupy consistency, you’re looking to get roughly 50ml yield. Pour into a squeezy bottle.
Slice the white beetroots very thin, cut star shapes using a cutter and vacuum pack them in a pickle liquor of equal parts water, sugar, and white wine vinegar.
Slice the apple the same thickness and cut the same size shapes. You want 3 apple and 5 beetroot each.
For the dill oil, weigh equal parts of picked dill and sunflower oil. In a pan take the oil to 80C, add the dill and hot oil into a blender and blend for 4 mins. Pass this through a muslin cloth and once cool store in a squeezy bottle.
plating
To plate, slice the scallops into 2 or 3 depending on size and arrange in the bottom of a starter bowl.
Start by arranging the apple and white beetroots on the scallops with the lime segments and a cook sized quenelle of caviar. Add 3 of each herb and leaf on top, and 5 dots of apple caramel around the outside with the dill oil.
Finish by spooning the foamed sauce around the outside.
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