This is a seafood variation of the Duck breast with mushrooms and English peas, and like that recipe, it uses ideas from two previous recipes: Duck breast with lavender and honey, and English peas purée with mint and Bulgarian feta.
serves: 6 difficulty: medium prep time: 45 min
Ingredients
Scallops
- 18 large scallops, ideally sashimi grade
- 2 tbs canola or vegetable oil for frying
For the English pea puree
- 4 cups shelled fresh shelled English peas, except that you need to reserve 6 stalks without shelling them.
- 1 medim shallots
- 2 tsb olive oil for frying + 1/4 cup for the purée
- 1 quart chicken or vegetable stock (if you want to keep vegan / vegetarian)
- 10-12 mint leaves
- 3 tbs lemon juice
- 1/2 avocado
- pea shoots for garnish
For the mushrooms
- 1 lbs porcini (or trumpet) mushrooms
Preparation
You typically buy fresh English peas in the shells so you first need to shell them. However, reserve 6 stalks unshelled – you will use them for decoration.
Dice the shallots.
Heat a 3-4 quart stock pot, and add 2 tbs olive oil. When the oil shimmers, add the shallots and sauté until they start turning gold.
Add the shelled English peas and continue sautéing for 3-4 min. The peas will turn a brighter green color. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Now add the unshelled 6 pea stalks. Reduce the heat to simmer, and cook until the peas are soft, about 20-30 min. If the stock evaporates, add more stock or water. When the peas are soft, remove them from the heat and let cool.
Reserve the unshelled stalks.
When the peas are cool enough to handle, strain them and reserve the cooking liquid.
Also reserve 1/3 cup of cooked peas – you will be using them for decoration.
Place the peas in a food processor, add 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid, 1/4 cup olive oil, the mint leaves, avocado, lemon juice, and 1 tsp salt, and purée until smooth.
While pureing you may have to periodically scrape the mixture off the walls of the food processor.
Now the porcini mushrooms. Slice them in two lengthwise. Score them diagonally.
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the scored porcini mushrooms scored side down in a roasting pan with the olive oil. Season them with salt and pepper.
Roast the mushrooms until tender – about 20 min. Take them out of the oven, and flip them scored sire up. Roast for another 10 min. When they are done, they should look something like this.
And lastly, kook the scallops right before you are ready to serve. First, pat dry them well. Season them with salt and pepper. Pre-heat a fry pan. Add the oil, and once it shimmers, add the scallops. Cook them on one side until the bottom half becomes translucent, no more than 2 min. Flip them over, and cook for another 2 min. Remove from the heat.
To assemble the dish:
- spread the English peas puree as a strip on one side of the plate. I use a spatula to do that.
- place the scallops on the pea puree.
- then spread some of the reserved cooked peas in between the scallops.
- take the reserved pea stalks and carefully split them in two, such that all the peas rest on half of the stalk. Place the half stalk with the peas along side the pea puree. See below.
- garnish with the pea shoots.
- place the porcinis on the side
The finished plate should look like this:
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