food

Pacific Rim — Kaiju Salad and Deep Sea Scallops

This week's recipes are inspired by the Giant Robots vs Giant Monsters extravaganza, Pacific Rim, and in honor of Guillermo Del Toro, we're making a Kaiju salad poised to battle an atmospheric plate of Deep-Sea Scallops.

food

Pacific Rim — Kaiju Salad and Deep Sea Scallops

This week's recipes are inspired by the Giant Robots vs Giant Monsters extravaganza, Pacific Rim, and in honor of Guillermo Del Toro, we're making a Kaiju salad poised to battle an atmospheric plate of Deep-Sea Scallops.

Supplies

  • A glass of white wine
  • A handful of parsley stalks
  • 1 onion, peeled and quartered
  • 1 bulb of fennel, quartered
  • 1/2 a large octopus
  • A handful of new potatoes (400g)
  • 1 carrot, julienned
  • Olive oil (50 milliliters)
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
  • A handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
  • A handful of pea sprouts

Steps

  1. Boil a large pan of water.
  2. Turn down the heat to a simmer, then add white wine, parsley stalks, onion and the fennel.
  3. Cut the tentacles away from the head of the octopus and discard the head.
  4. Add the tentacles to the water and cook very gently for 1 hour, until it is soft when pierced with a knife.
  5. Remove the octopus with the vegetables and allow to cool.
  6. Peel and dice the potatoes into large cubes.
  7. Chuck them into a pan of salted water.
  8. Heat the potatoes to a boil and cook for 15 minutes, until soft but holding together. Add the julienne of carrots 30 seconds before the end of cooking, so that they just start to soften.
  9. Let the potatoes and carrots cool a little before adding to a bowl with the octopus.
  10. Drizzle over the olive oil.
  11. Zest and squeeze the juice from the lemon into the bowl.
  12. Mince the raw garlic and throw it in with the chilli seeds and the parsley.
  13. Toss in the pea sprouts just before serving and toss everything together.

Supplies

  • Yuzu juice or seasoning (50 milliliters)
  • 2 sheets of gelatin
  • A handful of popped popcorn
  • 2 nori sheets
  • A handful of panko breadcrumbs
  • Several knobs of unsalted butter
  • Dried wakame seaweed (50g)
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • Samphire (100g)
  • 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
  • A shot of olive oil
  • 8 king scallops
  • A large shallot
  • White wine (200 milliliters)
  • 8 peppercorns
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 12 clams or mussels
  • Soy lecithin (1g)
  • Starfish ice cube tray (available from ikea and amazon)

Steps

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water.
  2. Whisk the yuzu into 50 milliliters of water, then pour into a small saucepan and bring to the boil.
  3. Squeeze the moisture from the gelatin and dissolve in the hot yuzu water.
  4. Pour into the starfish ice cube tray (or a regular tray) and leave in the fridge for a few hours to set.
  5. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
  6. Place the popcorn and the nori into a food processor and blitz to a rough powder.
  7. Soak the wakame in warm water for a few minutes.
  8. Peel and mince the garlic and heat a knob of butter in a frying pan.
  9. Add the soaked wakame, samphire, sesame seeds and garlic to the pan and fry gently for a few minutes.
  10. Squeeze in half of the lemon juice and add the sesame oil as you toss together.
  11. Heat a pan over a very high heat and add a shot of oil.
  12. Lay the scallops in the pan and cook for a minute on each side, until they are a deep caramel brown.
  13. Add a knob of butter, a squeeze of lemon and remove the scallops to a sheet of kitchen towel.
  14. Dice the shallot and chuck it in a large pan.
  15. Add the wine, peppercorns and bay leaves then bring to a boil over a high heat.
  16. Throw in the clams or mussels and cover the pan and allow to bubble away until they are fully open.
  17. Strain the liquid and measure 100 milliliters.
  18. Sprinkle over 1 gram of soy lecithin and use an immersion blender to blitz until a foam forms on the top.
  19. Spoon the popcorn 'sand' over the plate and arrange the seaweed and samphire around the sand.
  20. Place the scallops, clams and yuzu starfish around the plate.
  21. Finish with a generous helping of foam.