Raw Orkney Scallop

Jason Atherton

Jason Atherton

18th February 2020
Jason Atherton

Raw Orkney Scallop

720 min

With pear purée, pickled turnip and jalapeno granita.

Make the pickled turnips shortly before serving. Peel the turnip and thinly slice using a mandoline. Stack a few slices at a time and stamp out near discs with a 5cm round pastry cutter. Put the discs into a bowl and pour over enough pickling liquid to cover. Leave to pickle for about 10 mins, then drain.

Ingredients

Jalapeno granita

  • 125g caster sugar
  • 125ml cold water
  • 300ml fresh lime juice
  • 150ml fresh apple juice
  • 50ml fresh cucumber juice
  • 60g fresh jalapeno peppers, deseeded and diced

pear purée

  • 1kg ready-made pear purée (we use Boivron purée)
  • 2g agar agar powder

wasabi & yuzu dressing

  • 100ml olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely crushed
  • 60ml yuzu juice
  • 50ml light soy sauce
  • 20g fresh wasabi, grated

pickled turnip

  • 2 Tokyo turnips (or 1 small kohlrabi)
  • pickling liquid

pickling liquid

  • 125ml Muscatel vinegar
  • 100ml white wine vinegar
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 1 star anise
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 3 cloves
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds

black olive oil

  • 100g dehydrated black olives (dried out in a dehydrator at 75.c for 6 hours)
  • 100ml olive oil

Method

Raw scallops

8-10 very fresh, large, raw Orkney scallops (in shell).
Shuck and clean the scallops, save the coral roe for another dish. Thinly slice each scallop horizontally into 3 or 4 discs of even thickness (you want 28 neat discs in total). Put them into a bowl and squeeze over some wasabi and yuzu dressing.
Toss gently, then leave to marinate for few minutes.

jalapeno

Put the sugar and water into a saucepan and stir over a medium heat just until the sugar has dissolved. Leave the sugar syrup to cool.
Meanwhile, blitz together all the remaining ingredients in a strong blender until very smooth.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a large freezeproof container (with a lid). Stir in the sugar syrup. Cover the container and freeze for a few hours or overnight until solid.

pear purée

Put the purée into a saucepan and bring to a rapid boil. Add the agar agar and boil for another couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
Pour and spread the purée on to a baking tray and immediately put the tray into a blast chiller (the purée will discolour if not cooled quickly).
When cold, transfer the purée to a blender and blitz until smooth. Pass through a fine sieve, then transfer to a squeezy bottle.

wasabi & yuzu dressing

Whisk together all the ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside for 30 mins to let the flavours meld together, then strain through a fine sieve.
Transfer to a squeezy bottle and keep in the fridge until needed.

assembly

For each serving, squeeze dots of chive and dill oil and black olive oil on to a serving plate. arrange 7 discs of marinated scallop on top of the oils, then top each scallop disc with a pickled turnip disc.
Squeeze a little mound of pear purée on each pickled turnip. Garnish with the sea herbs and bronze fennel. Spoon a little wasabi and yuzu dressing around the plate.
Scrape the frozen jalapeno granita with a fork to make a coarse grainy texture, then spoon this into a small individual serving bowl to serve alongside.

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