This was a very fun dish to create. It is a playful take on ceviche, trying to mesh those flavors and profiles without using the standard ingredients. The scallops in this dish are sous vide, of course, but cooked lightly without a sear to maintain the look of raw scallops. With this scallop ceviche, I used a bit of molecular gastronomy. If you are interested in molecular gastronomy and don't have the materials, you can look online at great shops like Molecule-R for supplies. If you don't have the ingredients you can incorporate tomatoes and peppers into the dish.
Ingredients:
- 5 scallops
- 1 english cucumber
- 1 grapefruit (grilled)
- 1 cup Clamato juice
- 2 cups distilled water
Special ingredients:
- 1 silicone sphere mold
- 1 gram sodium alginate
- 1/3 gram calcium lactate
- 1/2 gram soy lecithin
Start by getting your "Bloody Mary" spheres in order the night before the dish. Take your sphere mold and have it set aside while you mix 1 c of Clamato juice with 1/3 gram of calcium lactate. When the powder is mixed well, add about 2 tbsp minced cucumber into the liquid then spoon into the molds and freeze.
When you're ready to prepare your meal, set your Anova immersion circulator to 180F (82C). While the water heats up, we can prepare our scallops. Take your scallops, season them lightly with salt and seal in a vacuum seal bag, making sure to stop the seal before the scallops become crushed.
Cut your grapefruit in half and then grill it until you get some nice char lines on it. This will add to the flavor for our foam. While the grapefruit is grilling, drop your scallops into the 180F (82C) water for 2-3 minutes until you can see the scallops aren't as translucent. Immediately cool the bag with ice water. Slice your cucumber up then mix 2 c of distilled water with your sodium alginate and hit with a stick mixer (or in a blender) until all of the powder is mixed well.
Place this liquid into a bowl and let it sit for about 10 min until all of the bubbles go away. Plate your scallops and cucumber slices, then take your grapefruit and squeeze the juice into a bowl. Add your soy lecithin to the grapefruit juice and hit with a stick mixer until a foam starts to form. The soy lecithin works to keep the bubbles formed instead of popping immediately. Reserve foam.
Take your Bloody Mary spheres out of the freezer and pop the frozen spheres into the sodium alginate bath. Make sure they're submerged and gently stir them for five minutes. Once five minutes have passed, grab the spheres with a slotted spoon and place into a bowl of water to stop the sphere process. Once the spheres have been washed in the water, grab them one at a time with a slotted spoon and place over the cucumber slices. Season the scallops with salt and a touch of celery salt, garnish the plate with cilantro leaves and grapefruit foam.
