This is an ethereal dish with delicate flavours. It relies on the finest scallops to make the dish sing; in this case, large scallops from Western Australia will give the best results – go for dry scallops that haven’t been soaked in water.
Ingredients
Scallop sauce
Method
1.Place prawns on a chopping board, then with the side of a knife, press down firmly to roughly mash them, then finely chop until smooth paste. Transfer to a bowl, add a tiny pinch of salt flakes and mix well.
2.Slice scallop horizontally three-quarters of the way through, then open up and smear a little prawn paste onto one side. Close, and repeat with remaining scallops.
3.Heat a well-seasoned or non-stick frying pan over lowmedium heat. Add scallops, making sure they’re not touching each other, and cook until light golden (1½ minutes). Turn scallops and cook until centres are just firm and opaque (30 seconds to 1 minute).
4.Meanwhile, for scallop sauce, bring chicken stock to the boil in a saucepan. Add oyster sauce and sugar, then stir in potato flour mixture to thicken slightly. Keep warm.
5.Bring 500ml water to the boil in a separate saucepan and add vegetable oil. Add fioretto and blanch until just tender (1 minute). Drain, refresh, and toss with a pinch of sea salt.
6.Arrange scallops on a plate, pour over sauce, and top with fioretto to serve.
Fioretto, flowering cauliflower blossom, is available from select supermarkets and farmers’ markets. Substitute snow peas or asparagus.
Notes
