Sea Scallops with Sesame and Wakame

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Recipe serves: 4
A Little Background

A lot of recipes you find that incorporate Sea Scallops tend to drown them in rich sauces. I think that this is a bit of a shame as rich sauces are best reserved for flavourless and texture lacking seafood’s, something that a nice fresh scallop is definitely not. This recipe is very simple to prepare and although it incorporates some strong flavours it still leaves the Scallop as the star of the show. I tend to use the Queensland variety, as I find them to be the perfect size and have beautiful ocean sweetness. Obviously if you’re not in Australia it will be a bit difficult to find this variety, but find a fish monger you can trust and ask him or her what they recommend.

What you’ll need

• 1 dozen Queensland Scallops on the half shell (or comparable variety)
• 2 tbsps sesame seeds
• Mirin
• Sesame oil
• Vegetable oil
• Sea salt
• Cracked black pepper
• Japanese pickled ginger
• 1 X 50 gram (2 oz) packet dried Wakame seaweed shreds

What to do

• Place the Wakame seaweed into a small mixing bowl and cover with boiling water and a splash of mirin, allow to sit for about 5-10 minutes and strain.
• Toast the sesame seeds over a med flame in a dry pan, continue to keep the pan moving until seeds are golden and nutty and remove from pan immediately.
• Gently slide a paring knife under each scallop and remove them from their shells and set aside.
• Wash and rinse any residue or growths off each scallop shell, rinse well and set aside.
• Season both sides of the scallops lightly with the salt and pepper.
• Heat a pan over med to high heat with 1-2 tbsps vegetable oil and sear scallops for about 30-50 seconds per side (depending on size of scallops and personal preference. Note that a slightly under cooked scallop is fine to eat and will remain more tender than a fully cooked one.)
• Remove the scallops and return them to their shells.
• Place a small pinch of the seaweed on each scallop and then place a pinch of the pickled ginger on the seaweed.
• Gently drizzle a very small amount of sesame oil over each garnished scallop, and finish with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.
• Grab one of your more casual friends to carry the tray of scallops around to your less casual friends so you can finish the Sake you started earlier.

Seared Tuna with Nicoise Salad and Soft Boiled Quail Egg

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Recipe serves : 8

What you’ll need

• 600 gm (1.3 lb)Yellow Fin Tuna

For the Nicoise Salad

• 300 gm (10 ½ ounces)Fine Beans
• 400 gm (14 ounces) Baby Potato (diced)
• 100 gm (3 ½ ounces) Baby Spinach Leaf
• 150 gm (5 ounces) Kalamata Olive (pitted)
• 100 gm (3 ½ ounces) Black Ripe olive (pitted)
• 270 gm (9 ounces) Ripe Vine Tomato (seeded & diced)
• 300 gm (10 ½ ounces) Red onion
• 50 gm (2 ounces) Garlic
• 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
• 200 ml (7/8 cup) Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon White Wine Vinegar
• 10 nos Quail Eggs

For the Basil Cream

• 10 gm (1/3 ounce) Fresh Basil
• 50 gm (2 ounces) Mayonnaise
• 50 ml (1/4 cup) Cream
• 1 tablespoon Rock Salt
• 10 gm (1/3 ounces) Salt
• 1 teaspoon Black Pepper
• Dill for garnish

What to do

For the Niçoise Salad

• Boil water with rock salt. Add the quail eggs and leave to boil for one minute and remove. Let it cool down at room temperature for 20 minutes and keep in refrigerator. Peel just before serving.
• Boil diced baby potato until just cook, plunge in ice water and cut into half. Repeat procedure with fine beans. Then slice the red onion, olives and keep aside.
• Make a simple vinaigrette, combining chopped garlic, red onion, mustard, olive oil and vinegar.

For the Basil Cream

• Fine chop basil leaf and combine with mayonnaise. Add cream and mix gradually. Season to taste.

For the Tuna

• Season tuna with salt and pepper. Sear in a hot pan 30 second on each side. Slice and serve immediately.

For the finishing

• Now combine/toss boiled fine beans, potato, diced tomatoes and baby spinach leaf with the vinaigrette. Place the niçoise salad in the middle of the plate with pitted olives and sliced red onion. Place the sliced tuna on the salad and garnish off with some dill, soft boil quail egg and basil cream.

Fettuccine with Prawns and Baby Fennel in Pernod Cream Sauce

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Recipe serves : 4

What you’ll need

• 400 grams (14 oz) wide fettuccine

• 600 ml (21 fl oz) fresh cream

• 20 whole green king prawns

• 2 medium brown onions (1/2 finely diced. 1½ roughly chopped)

• 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

• 1 carrot (roughly chopped)

• 1 celery stalk (roughly chopped)

• 3 tbsp parmesan cheese (grated)

• 1 bulb baby fennel (cleaned of fronds, halved and thinly sliced)

• 1 tbsp tomato paste

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Butter

• Bay leaves

• Peppercorns

• Sea salt flakes

• Black pepper corn mill

What to do
For the Stock

• Peel & clean the prawns, keep the heads & shells (leave the tails on if you like).

• In a large pot sauté the chopped onion, carrot and celery in a little olive oil for 1 minute.

• Add the prawn shells and heads and sauté for a further 2-3 minutes.

• Add tomato paste and 400 mls (14 fl oz) of water.

• Add 3-4 bay leaves and 6-8 peppercorns and bring to the boil.

• Once boiling, lower heat to a simmer and continue to simmer until reduced by just over half.

For the Pasta

• In another pot boil enough salted water to cook the pasta in.

• Cook the pasta until al dente (check the package).

• Strain the pasta and cool with running water.

For the Sauce

• In a large fry pan, melt 2 tbsps butter with 2 tbsps olive oil over medium heat.

• Sauté the diced onion, fennel and garlic until starting to turn translucent.

• Turn the heat to high and add ¼ cup of Pernod.

• Burn the alcohol off the Pernod and reduce until the pan is only slightly wet.

• Remove from the heat.

• Place the contents of the pan along with the cream into a large pot and return to medium heat.

• Allow to simmer and thicken, approx 10 minutes

• Meanwhile once the prawn stock has reduced by half, strain it and discard the solids.

• Add no more than 200 mls (7 fl oz) of the stock to the sauce and continue to reduce until thick (do not boil).

• Once sauce is thick enough to coat the pasta, reduce to low heat.

• Wipe the fry pan clean and melt 1 tbsp of butter with 1 tbsp of olive oil over high heat.

• Add the prawns and cook for approx 2 minutes or until pink.

• Splash with a few tbsps of Pernod, burn off the alcohol and add the contents to the sauce.

• Add parmesan cheese to sauce, stir and season to taste with sea salt and black pepper.

Assembly

• Rinse pasta under hot water to warm up, shake off excess water and plunge pasta into sauce.

• Stir gently and serve.

• Garnish with excess fennel fronds if desired.

Fettuccine with Salmon, Asparagus and Capers in Lemon and Dill Oil

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Recipe serves : 4

What you’ll need

• 500 grams dry fettuccine

• 150 grams smoked salmon slices or sliced fresh salmon

• 1 bunch green asparagus

• 2 tbsp capers

• 1 tbsp chopped fresh dill

• 2 cups fresh baby spinach leaves

• 1 lemon

• White wine

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Sea salt flakes

• Black pepper corn mill

What to do

• Remove and discard the woody bases from the asparagus spears.

• Cut the asparagus spears into 2 cm (1 inch pieces) with a 45 degree angle cut.

• In a large pot of salted boiling water cook the pasta just under al’dente, drain, cool with running water and set aside (try to reserve the cooking water).

• Return the pot with the water back to the stove and return to the boil.

• Blanche the asparagus in the water, once vibrantly green remove and place in a large mixing bowl (leaving the water on to boil).

• In a non stick fry pan add a touch of olive oil and place on high heat.

• Once the oil is hot saute off the salmon (if using smoked salmon no need to cook it just place it in the bowl with asparagus), capers, dill and a touch of cracked pepper, (do not over cook, just long enough to warm the salmon through.

• Add a small splash of white wine and cook off the alcohol.

• Place the contents of the pan in the large mixing bowl with the asparagus.

• Re-blanche the fettuccine until warm and al’dente, drain and toss in the bowl with the other ingredients.

• Add the baby spinach leaves to the bowl, squeeze the juice of the lemon into the bowl add a few more tbsps of extra virgin and toss it all gently together and serve immediately.

• Serve with grilled Vienna bread and a solid white wine