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Bay scallops tiradito
Serves 4 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 300g medium scallops, without their coral
- kala namak and micro coriander leaves, to garnish
For the sweet potatoes
- 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
- 200g soft light brown sugar
- 1 star anise
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 100ml vegetable oil
For the leche de tigre
- ½ small white onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 1cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
- 1 large stick celery, chopped
- 5g coriander leaves, chopped
- 1 limo chilli pepper, or Thai red chilli pepper, cleaned, deseeded and minced
- juice of ½ lime
- 30ml passion-fruit purée (from about 4 passion fruits)
Method
To make the leche de tigre sauce, briefly process the onion, garlic, ginger, celery and 50ml water in a blender and strain through a fine sieve into a bowl. Add the coriander and chilli to the liquid, allow to rest for a few seconds,then add the lime juice and passion-fruit purée.
Using a very sharp knife, slice the scallops into discs about 4mm thick. Add to the leche de tigre sauce. Sit the bowl over ice while you prepare the rest of the dish.
For the sweet potatoes, place 500ml water in a medium-sized stock pot with the sugar, star anise and cinnamon stick. Bring to the boil, add the sweet-potato cubes and simmer until just soft. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside, continuing to boil the liquid until it is reduced to a light yet coating syrup.
Purée half the sweet-potato cubes to serve as a decorative base on the plate. Fry the remainder in the vegetable oil, then drain and toss in the syrup.
Using a little of the leche de tigre sauce as a base, arrange the scallop discs in a vertical line on one side of a large dinner plate. Sprinkle with kala namak.
Using a palette knife, make a parallel line of sweet-potato purée. Arrange the sweet-potato cubes on top of the purée and scatter with the micro coriander leaves.
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