Cook with Us #21: Seared Scallops with Pea Purée, and Cumin Foam

It has been one busy week-end at home. For a while I’ve considered long and hard whether I would prepare an entry for this week’s contest. My daughter is turning 2 on Wednesday. Being a weekday, we’ve decided to hold her birthday celebration with her little friends over the weekend at a Play Centre. Overall it was a real success as all the kids had heaps of fun, some didn’t want to go home whilst others are already planning their next birthday at the same place.

I quickly put Lorelai to bed for her nap when we got home. My husband made a detour on the way from the Play Centre to the local KFC. We quickly swallowed our lunch as the action packed day was not yet over. Whilst I was putting my daughter to sleep, my husband was on his way to church where his nephew was having his Confirmation ceremony. And he finally got home just before 4pm we had to get ready again to attend the Confirmation party at my brother-in-law’s place. It was close to 9pm when we eventually got home and let me tell you that I was a wreck. I couldn’t feel my feet and my head was killing me. Must have been the Bombay Gin I drank on an empty stomach.

Sunday morning started the same way the previous day ended; busy. We went to say goodbye to my husband’s cousin who will be moving back to Mauritius for a little while with his family. After that we went grocery shopping and allocated some time to get what we needed for the Cook with Us challenge. As always I’ve been researching an original dish to do justice to this week’s theme. Based on the weather forecast I was always going to pick the seafood mystery theme. And I think I was right to plan this way as this weekend has been one of the worst weatherise for the season. It has rained all weekend and the temperature has not gone past 11 degrees celsius. It even snowed on the high mountains near me. It just give you an idea of how crazy the Melbourne weather was.

 

I was however lucky to benefit from the small break of sunshine to take some of my pics for this post. They are definitely not what I wanted them to be colour-wise but I’m nevertheless happy with how my platting turn out. I had two dishes in mind all week; one with salmon and the other with scallops. Given the fact that I knew I was gonna be eating away from home most of the weekend I thought the scallops dish would be the most effective. I remember seeing this particular recipe on a local cooking show and made a mental note of the pairing of scallops an pea purée.

 

However, that particular show didn’t have anything with regards to a cumin foam as an extra layer of flavour to the dish. I can across it while surfing the net and I must admit that it taste amazing. I never thought that such a combination would work so beautifully. Whilst very tired and lacking concentration I had to work really quickly with all the elements to ensure that the purée doesn’t loose its greenish colour quickly while also ensuring that the cumin remains pretty foamy at the time of plating.

I’m really happy with what I’ve achieved in a short amount of time.

I hope you enjoy it too!

Bon appétit!

And good luck to everyone.

INGREDIENTS

Seared Scallops

• 4 Scallops
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 10g butter
• 1/2 lemon
• Salt
• Black Pepper

Pea Purée

• 20g shallots, finely diced
• 1 tbsp oil
• 400g frozen garden peas
• 4g sea salt flakes
• 200ml milk

 

Cumin Foam

• 55g crème fraîche
• 110ml fish stock
• 2.5g cumin seeds
• 2g sea salt flakes
• 2.5g lecithin

 

METHOD

1. To make the pea purée, sweat the shallots in the oil until soft but not coloured. Add the garden peas, salt, and milk. Simmer for 8 minutes.
 
2. Drain off the milk into a jug, and pour the peas into a blender. Blitz for 2 minutes until ultra smooth adding enough of the milk to make a thickish purée. After blending, cool as quickly as possible, otherwise the colour will begin to fade fairly quickly.
 
3. Heat a non-stick pan over medium flame. When the pan is hot, pour in a spoon of olive oil, add the scallops and cook until golden on one side. After 2 minutes turn over, add butter, season with salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Transfer to a plate along with the cooking juices.
   
4. To make the cumin foam, combine the ingredients and blitz in a blender for 1 minute. Gently heat to approximately 40°C and no higher than 50°C.
 
5. Using a hand blender fitted with an aerator, foam up the mix before letting it rest for a minute.
6. Spoon some pea purée into the centre of the bowl. Add the seared cooked scallop, and some pea shoots around the edge. Spoon the foam around to finish and serve immediately.