Sous vide scallop soup with yuzu marinated raw scallop, summer greens and roast shellfish oil

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If you're looking for a light seafood starter with which to dazzle your diners, this stunning scallop recipe by Steven Smith is hard to beat. The chef skillfully blends contrasting tastes, textures and influences – fresh peas with shimeji mushrooms, scallop cream with tangy yuzu juice – to create a dish full of interesting flavours.

First published in 2015

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Dried scallop roe and sliced scallops

Queen scallop soup

Shellfish oil

Vegetable and herb garnish

Equipment

  • Dehydrator
  • Water bath
  • Vacuum bags
  • Chamber sealer
  • Hand blender

Method

1
Break the scallops open and carefully remove from the shells. Wash in iced water and remove the skirt of the scallop. Take the roe off the scallop and dry in a dehydrator overnight until completely dried out. Store the scallops in the fridge until the next day
2
Preheat a water bath to 65°C
3
To make the Queen scallop soup, place a large heavy-bottomed pan over a medium heat and sweat the vegetables, herbs and peppercorns in the butter. Add the scallops and cook over a high heat until the scallops are overcooked and all of the juices have been extracted
4
Tip the contents of the pan into a vacuum bag along with the white wine and fish stock. Vacuum in a chamber sealer and cook the soup in the water bath for 4 hours
  • 125ml of white wine
  • 375ml of fish stock
5
To make the shellfish oil, smash the lobster shells and place in a pan with a little oil. Sweat until the shells have roasted nicely and turned red. Add the remaining ingredients (apart from the oil) and continue to sweat for 10 minutes. Add the rest of the oil and cook over a very gentle heat for 2 hours. Strain through muslin cloth and set aside to cool
6
Reduce the cream for the soup by half, then pass the scallop soup into the cream, making sure you squeeze every single gram of juice from the scallops. Discard the scallops and season the soup to taste
  • 450ml of double cream
7
For the vegetable and herb garnish, pod the peas and broad beans. Blanch the peas, broad beans and beans in salted water until tender, then strain and refresh in ice water. Remove the skins from the broad beans once cool
8
Bring the water and vinegar to the boil, pour over the mushrooms and allow to cool
9
Slice each of the reserved scallops into 4 even slices, arrange 6 slices per portion in a circle in a large bowl and season with flaky sea salt and yuzu juice
10
Dress the vegetables and samphire in the shellfish oil and season before arranging over the scallops. Drizzle with the shellfish oil and grate the dried scallop roe over the whole dish
11
Warm the soup without boiling, or it will lose its delicate flavour. Flash the dressed scallops under a preheated grill for 10–15 seconds until they are 'just cooked' and the bowl is warm
12
Place the chervil on the vegetables and the chopped chives in the middle of the circle. Foam the soup with a hand blender and serve in a warm jug, pour the soup into the centre of the bowl when serving
First published in 2015

Steven Smith may be trend-averse but he is certainly not risk-averse, his cuisine embraces tradition without being consumed by it.

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