Fish is the Dish Fish is the Dish

Tom Aikens’ Marinated Scallop Carpaccio

Prep time: 41-50 minutes Cooking time: 26-30 minutes Serves: 4 Skill level: Competent Cook Recipe by: Seafish

Chef Tom Aitken’s impressive scallop carpaccio with red pepper dressing and puree.. yum!

The method

This recipe is time consuming, but the end result is completely worth it!

To make the roasted red pepper –

  1. Take the 3 peppers and place them onto an open flame and then chargrill them all over. Once they are evenly blackened, place into a large bowl and cover with a sheet of cling film. This will cause the peppers to steam and will finish the cooking process.
  2. Peel off all the skin and rinse them in cold water a few times to remove any black bits. Then remove the stalk and cut them into thirds, then into discs.
  3. Mix the rest of the ingredients together and add the peppers and give a good mix, leave this for a day before they are used so they are well marinated. 

 To make the red pepper puree

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large flat shallow pan, then once slightly hot add all the ingredients, but not the lemon juice, cover with a lid and cook till soft, stirring now and again. Cook this very slowly till the red peppers are softened and cooked down, this will take approximately 15-20 minutes.
  2. Make sure that it’s very thick and reduced, then add the lemon juice at the end and reduce down again till very thick.
  3. Once ready remove all the green stalks and hard herbs then place into a kitchen blender with the citric acid and puree till very smooth. Finally pass through a fine sieve and cool.

To make the red pepper dressing 

  1. Place the trimmed peppers into the blender and blend to juice, this has to then be passed through a fine sieve.
  2. Place the red pepper juice onto a medium heat, reduce to 30ml, wiping the sides down as it reduces so the sides don’t burn, then take off the heat to cool.
  3. Add the lemon juice and then the olive oil, leaving it split, the juice must not be watery but almost like the consistency of a syrup.

To assemble

  1. Season the scallops with a little red pepper dressing, salt & pepper.
  2. Place the puree onto the plate in 5-7 blobs, then the red peppers discs, then the scallops overlapping.
  3. Pour the red pepper dressing around and scatter the baby basil over the top.

Find Tom’s Kitchen restaurants in Chelsea, Canary Wharf, St Katherine’s Dock, Somerset House, and Istanbul.
http://www.tomskitchen.co.uk/