Sous Vide Scallops and Summer Greens | Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Sous Vide Scallops, Summer Greens, Yuzu, Soup of Manx Queenies and Roast Shellfish Oil

COOK TIME: 4 hours
PREP TIME: 2 Hours
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
SERVES: 4

Ingredients

Dried Scallop Roe and Sliced Scallops

6 scallops, in the shell, extra large
20ml of yuzu juice
flaky sea salt

Queen Scallop Soup

250g of Queen scallops, preferably Manx Queenies
1 carrot, chopped
½ bunch of spring onions, chopped
1 basil leaf
1 sorrel leaf
1 sprig of lemon thyme
1 sprig of marjoram
3 sprigs of flat-leaf parsley
6 green peppercorns
15g of butter
125ml of white wine
375ml of fish stock
450ml of double cream

Shellfish Oil

200g of lobster shell, or prawn/crab
200ml of rapeseed oil
1 sprig of thyme
1 sorrel leaf
1 basil leaf
1 sprig of marjoram
5 fennel seeds
1 garlic clove
1 tomato, over ripe
10g of tomato purée

Vegetable and Herb Garnish

20 fresh peas in the pod
10 broad bean pods
20 fine beans, extra fine, trimmed
100ml of water
25ml of white balsamic vinegar
100g of shimeji mushrooms, trimmed
50g of samphire
16 chervil tips
½ bunch of chives, chopped
rapeseed oil

Equipment

EQUIPMENT

Method

Recipe courtesy of Steven Smith from www.greatbritishchefs.com

METHOD

Melt the butter over a medium heat in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the carrot, spring onions, herbs and peppercorns and sweat until softened.
Stir in the Queen scallops and increase the heat. Cook until the scallops become tough and overcooked, all their juices having leached out into the pan.
Pour the contents of the saucepan into a vacuum bag. Add the white wine and the fish stock and seal using a machine with a vacuum chamber. Do not use a bar sealer. Place the bag in the water bath and leave to cook for 4 hours.
While the soup is cooking, make the shellfish oil. Crush the lobster shell into small pieces then fry in a small amount of the rapeseed oil until roasted and red. Stir in the herbs, fennel seeds, garlic, tomato and tomato purée and sweat for a further 10 minutes. Add the remaining oil, reduce the heat and cook very gently for 2 hours. Once cooked, pass the oil through a muslin cloth to remove the crushed shell and other solids, then leave to cool.
To finish the Queen scallop soup, simmer the double cream in a saucepan until reduced by half.
Remove the vacuum bag from the water bath and strain the contents through a fine sieve into the reduced cream. Squeeze as much juice as possible out of the Queen scallops, then discard them. Season the creamy soup mixture to taste.
To make the vegetable and herb garnish, extract the peas and broad beans from their pods. Blanch in salted water with the fine beans until tender, then drain and plunge into iced water. When the broad beans have cooled down completely, peel off the skins.
Heat the water in a saucepan with the white balsamic vinegar. When the mixture reaches the boil, tip it over the mushrooms and leave to cool.
To plate, take the reserved scallops out of the fridge and cut each one into 4 even slices. Divide the slices between 4 large serving bowls (6 per bowl). Place the slices in a circle around the edge of each bowl. Drizzle with the yuzu juice and sprinkle with the flaky sea salt.
Toss the peas, beans, mushrooms and samphire with seasoning and a small amount of the shellfish oil, then arrange on top of the scallops. Dress the whole dish with more shellfish oil and grate the dried scallop roe over the top.
Reheat the soup very gently. Avoid boiling it as this will destroy the delicate flavour. Once the soup has heated through, foam with a hand blender and tip into a warm jug to serve.
Place each bowl of dressed scallops under a very hot grill. Grill for 10-15 seconds until the bowl is warm to the touch and the scallops are ‘just cooked’.
Scatter the chervil over the vegetables and serve. At the table, pour some of the foamed soup into the centre of each bowl.

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Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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