Mazar / Corcos' Scallops Scottadito on English Peas Puree
Why I Love This Recipe
Ingredients You'll Need
12 Scallops
5 oz English Peas
1 Carrot
1 stock of Celery
1 medium size Potato
½ Onion
1 Lemon
1 teaspoon of Fresh Mint
1 handful of Chives
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tab of butter
Salt and Pepper
Directions
In a medium size pot bring 6 cups of water to a boil, add the peas for about 4-5 minutes, strain them, rinse them under running water and set aside.
Add to the boiling water the carrot, the celery, the onion cut in chunks and the whole potato. Cook on a slow boil for about 30 minutes, then remove the potato, peel it under running water and cut in chunks.
Put the peas, the potato and a couple of ladles of broth into a blender, season to taste with salt and pepper and blend to a purée.
Slice the mint very fine and zest the lemon, mix together and set aside.
In a non-stick pan heat about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the butter, then sear the scallops for about 3 minutes on each side, without moving them around too much.
Place about two tablespoons of peas purée on the center of the serving plate, place the scallops on top without pressing down too much, sprinkle with the lemon-mint mix and garnish the plate with a few chives.
Note: Peas Purée should be served warm or room temp, never cold.
Cleaning the Scallops
Turn the specimen so that the darkest side of the shelled scallop is facing upwards. Take a paring knife or sharpened spoon and insert it between the top and bottom halves of the shell.
Pry the shell open. Find where the scallop's muscle meets the top half of the shell and disengage the 2 from each other.
Throw the top half of the shell away once you have cut away the attachment.
Clean the inside of the scallop shell of everything but the muscle. Concentrate on the dark parts of scallop, while leaving the white muscle inside the shell.
When doing this, you should scrape the innards off of the muscle using your paring knife or sharpened spoon. This can be done easily and in one swipe if you begin scraping at the hinge and follow along the muscle in one clean movement. It's important to concentrate on the innards and to leave the muscle attached to the shell.
Detach the muscle from the shell once you have removed the innards from the inside of the shell.
You can do this by inserting a paring knife or sharpened spoon underneath the scallop's muscle and dislodging the muscle from the shell. You should have no trouble removing the muscle.
Run the scallop under cold water.
Putting your scallops under water will wash away impurities and get rid of sand and other grit.
Rub the scallop with your fingers to make sure that all impurities have been removed from the scallop.
Sometimes, sand or grit will remain on the scallop but be invisible to the eye. Rubbing the scallop ensures that you are getting all the impurities that might not be visible to you.
Remove any remaining side muscle that you may find while you are washing the scallop.
Remaining side muscle can be inconspicuous. To determine if what you're touching is side muscle, examine the scallop and feel for tougher pieces of muscle on the side of the scallop. If these tough pieces also have fibers that run against the grain of the scallop's muscle, then these are side muscles and can be removed.
Rinse the scallop again after removing remaining side muscles.
