Salad of scallops and oysters, spiced pimento and cucumber
Ingredients (serves four)
6 large scallops
12 oysters
4tbs olive oil
250g red pimento, peeled and diced
1tbs balsamic vinegar
1tbs sherry vinegar
Salt and pepper
6g sugar
1 cucumber, peeled and julienned (juice extracted from trimmings)
50g butter
500ml milk froth
100g mixed summer salad and herbs
Lemon juice, olive oil for salad
Method
Open the scallops. Clean and cut in half, horizontally. Open the oysters and reserve juice.
Heat olive oil in heavy pan. Add the pimento and vinegars. Season with salt, pepper and sugar and cook with lid on for one hour. Purée, then pass.
Mix oyster juice and cucumber juice together, then boil and strain into a clean saucepan. Add butter, boil again and then poach the julienne of cucumber for three minutes. Remove.
Poach oysters in the same juice for one minute and drain. Reduce oyster juice by two-thirds and fold into milk broth.
Brush the scallops with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté the scallops in a pre-heated non-stick pan.
Arrange the cucumber on the plate, alternating with pools of pimento pur‚e. Place a scallop on each pool of pur‚e and an oyster on the cucumber. Dress each oyster with cucumber froth.
Season the salad with olive oil and lemon juice and dress in centre of the plate.
Photos © Alan Donaldson
