Steemit Iron Chef 2018 Act 02 #03 ~ Faux Coquilles Saint-Jaques dans du Consommé d'Ail avec de nouilles aux légumes

I gave my this weeks dish a french name because Faux Coquilles Saint-Jaques sounds much better in my ears than 'False scallops in garlic broth ...'. 😉

I wanted to create something light and summerly because the weather is beautiful and I am in a sunshiny mood. This dish is a perfect mixture of cooked and raw foods.

A Consommé actually is a completely clear soup and can be made from different ingredients. For me, of course, only vegetables are acceptable. The theme of the week is garlic. So I added a lot of garlic (two bulbs) to the vegetables for the broth. There are different ways to clear a Consommé. I simply filtered the cooked broth through a coffee filter. Easy as that!

Usually a Consommé is served with different soup add-ins. To make mine really fancy, I choose vegetable noodles and the stems of kings trumpet mushrooms. These mushrooms have a very meaty texture after frying and the stems reminds me of scallops really, really much. It's been years that I had real scallops but when prepared right and seasoned well the kings trumpet mushrooms stems are indistinguishable to the seafood. You definitely must give it a try. It's fascinating!

Ingredients:

• vegetables of your choice for the broth (I choose onions, carrots, parsnip, fennel, celery, a meaty tomato, kohlrabi, shiitake mushrooms for the umami flavor, fresh parsley and of course the garlic bulbs)
• some dry white wine
• salt, black pepper corns, bay leaves and pimento (all spice) - for seasoning the broth
• orange and purple carrots 
• zucchini
• kings trumpet mushrooms
• No-fish-sauce
• fresh garlic
• some vegetable oil
• pulverized seaweed
• some fresh herbs
• salt and pepper

Preparation:

I put all the vegetables for the Consommé in a large pot together with two glasses of the wine and the spices. I brought it to cook, lowered the temperature immediately and let it simmer for about an hour. Make sure the liquid is not cooking very long. We don't want to a broth full of mashed vegetable pieces. The liquid should stay mostly  clear. 

I filtered the broth through a sieve first and then through a coffee filter. So I got a very clear result. In that teapot it almost looks like a herbal tea.

I cut thick pieces off of the stems of the kings trumpet mushrooms - just the sice a scallop would be and mixed them with three tablespoons of vegetable oil and three tablespoons of this No-fish-sauce which brings a bit of this seawater taste into the dish. 

I prepared my vegetable noodles and arranged them on a soup plate. While I was heating up the Consommé I fried the 'scallops' in a hot pan with a little bit of vegetable oil until golden brown reduced heat and covered them for like five minutes with a lid to make sure the inside of them got cooked and that typical soft gouey texture of scallops. I seasoned with salt and pepper, squeezed the juice of a fresh glove of garlic over them and topped each of them with a pinch of pulverized seaweed.

I arranged my Coquilles Saint-Jaques on the plate with the vegetable noodles and poured the almost boiling Consommé around them, decorated with fresh slices of garlic, fresh parsley, chieves and peasprouts. Delicious! 😋

It was the perfect food for a warm summer evening when heavy foods are just too much.

I hope you liked my contribution to the wonderful cooking contest #steemit-ironchef initiated by @progressivechef. Feel free to add your thoughts and ideas! If you would like to participate as well, here is the post where he announces the theme and explains the rules: STEEMIT IRON CHEF 2018 Act 02 Round 03 : Contest now OPEN!!!.

🦀 🐟 🐙 🐋 🦐 🦈 🐡 🦑 All the happy sea dwellers like that ... 😉