European · Starter · From the menu Travesía

Scallop, cauliflower, miso brown butter, lime

Vieira, coliflor, beurre noisette de miso, lima

One large scallop, seared hard on one side only, on a smooth cauliflower purée, with brown butter whisked with white miso and finished with lime. Sweet, nutty, salty, sharp, in that order.

Serves
Six
Prep
25 min
Cook
20 min
Cuisine
European

The whole dish is built around one contrast: the scallop stays barely cooked in the middle while the outside takes a proper crust. That only happens in a pan hotter than feels sensible, with a scallop that is bone dry. If it hisses gently instead of roaring, take it out and start again.

Ingredients

  • 6 large hand-dived scallops, roe off, muscle removed
  • 1 cauliflower, about 800 g
  • 250 ml whole milk
  • 60 g butter for the purée, plus 120 g for the sauce
  • 2 tbsp white miso
  • 1 lime
  • 1 tbsp grapeseed or other neutral oil
  • Salt, a few cauliflower leaves for garnish

Method

  1. Break the cauliflower into small florets, keeping a handful aside. Cook the rest gently in the milk with a little salt until completely soft, about 15 minutes.
  2. Blend the cooked cauliflower with just enough of the milk to move it, plus 60 g butter, until glossy and completely smooth. Pass it through a sieve. Keep warm.
  3. Slice the reserved florets very thin on a mandolin and keep them in iced water for crunch.
  4. Brown the 120 g butter until it foams, then smells of hazelnuts and the solids turn deep gold. Take it off the heat immediately and whisk in the miso off the heat. It will split if it is too hot; a splash of water brings it back.
  5. Dry the scallops on kitchen paper, then dry them again. Salt one side only.
  6. Heat the oil in a heavy pan until it is just short of smoking. Lay the scallops in salted side down and do not touch them for 90 seconds to two minutes, until the crust is a solid deep brown. Turn off the heat, flip them, count to 20 and lift them out.
  7. Purée down, scallop on top crust up, miso butter around, raw cauliflower and a fine grating of lime zest over. Squeeze of lime juice at the last second.

Serve it with. It is a one-scallop course. Serve it on its own and follow it with something substantial.