Recipes involving foam can sound like complicated restaurant fare, but in this recipe, Adrian Coulthard from Rushton Hall has come up with a simply constructed, impressive-sounding dish to delight friends and family.
Ingredients (for two people)
6 large scallops (in their shell)
2 slices cured ham
1 lemon
200g peas
100ml milk
15g butter
100g cream
2 leaves gellatine
Salt/pepper to taste
100ml fish stock (good clear)
50ml skimmed milk
50ml double cream
1 vanilla pod
Salad leaves, to garnish
Method
For the pannacotta:
Bring the cream, milk and butter to the boil in a saucepan, then add the peas. Remove from the heat. Soak the gelatine in some cold water to soften, then add to the hot pea mix.
Place the mix into a food blender and blend to a smooth puree. Add salt and pepper to taste, then pass the mix through a fine sieve, and place into moulds to set (4-6 hours).
For vanilla foam:
Bring the fish stock to the boil with the cream and the scraped vanilla pod, reduce this by half, take off the heat and add the milk. Then, using a hand-held stick blender, bring the mix to a foam.
Cooking the scallops:
Remove the scallops from their shells and remove the orange coral, place onto some kitchen paper and season with salt and pepper.
Place the scallops into a hot frying pan and cook for approx 40 seconds each side. Just before removing from the pan, add a little butter and a squeeze of lemon juice.
To plate:
Gently warm the moulds to allow the pannacotta to come out and place on the plate just off centre. Arrange the slice of cured ham next to this with the scallops on top. Garnish with some baby salad leaves and spoon on the bubbles of the vanilla foam.