Falmouth Oyster Festival: Nick Hodges scallop recipe
With Falmouth Oyster Festival now in its 23rd year, join us and celebrate one of our favourite festivals of the season! Taking place between the 9th and 13th October, make sure you pop into the demo tent on Friday 11th, as Executive Chef Nick Hodges will be taking to the stage at 2pm. Here, Nick will be showing off his talents by cooking up his famous seared Falmouth Bay scallops dish. Can’t wait until then? Check out our recipe preview below…
Nick’s top tip: “A good quality non-stick pan will be needed for this dish”
What you will need
- Three hand dived scallops, cleaned with the roe intact
- Three rosettes of foie royale
- Two slices Two Brothers maple cured smoked streaky bacon, diced
- 50g rock samphire, picked and washed
- Two Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
- Lemon juice
- Golden rapeseed oil
- Unsalted butter
- Cornish sea salt
Nick’s top tip: “It is essential that all the ingredient prep is complete before the pan reaches the stove. This dish uses the same pan to seal in the flavours and doesn’t stop from the first fry to the plate.”
Method
- In a thick bottomed pan, stew the prepared apples in a small amount of butter, adding a squeeze of lemon. A pinch of sugar can be added to taste. (Nick prefers the apples to stay sharp as this marries perfectly against the rich foie royale and scallops).
- Blend the stewed apples to a fine paste. Place to purée in a small bowl, add cling film and set aside.
- Place the non-stick pan on a medium heat, add a dessert spoon of rapeseed oil. (Normal oil will be fine, but the golden rapeseed oil gives a fantastic nutty flavour to the scallops).
- When the oil is hot, place the scallop, the bacon and the foie royale in the pan.
- After a minute turn all the ingredients.
- Sear for a further minute and remove the ingredients, placing on a warm plate to rest.
- Instantly place the pan back to the heat. Do not clean the deep as the flavours will be removed.
- Add a knob of butter, allow to sizzle, then place in the samphire.
- Season with a good pinch of sea salt, toss the pan and finish with a squeeze of lemon.
- Remove from the heat.
Plating
As soon as the samphire has been removed from the heat, place neatly on the plate. Top with the scallops, then the foie royale and finish with a sprinkle of the bacon. Add drops of the purée around the dish ensuring each scallop has a proportionate amount of apple to taste.
Finally, Enjoy!
Don’t forget to head towards the demo tent on Friday 11th October to see Nick rustle up this dish! The tent is located at Events Square in Falmouth.
