Scallops with Malay Curry
Scallops with Malaysian influences….
Here’s a starter I came up with a couple of weeks back which played on the theme of Malay-Singapore-Nonya style cooking which has always been a favourite of mine.
The use of scallops with slow cooked preserved duck is something I have done before as is the combination of duck and cauliflower which works remarkably well so I simply combined the three elements together.
You may recall a post I wrote on Malay curry which I had posted a recipe for a great curry paste, well this dish uses that paste. Chinese five spice is an integral ingredient and works so well with the fish, meat and vegetables here. It is not a hot curry, rather more fragrant and creamy but you don’t need to put these together. You could use the paste recipe to make a sauce and use it for a duck, cauliflower or fish curry.
The secret behind this particular dish is to get a nice caramelised finish to the cauliflower and the scallops. The duck should be moist from the preserved duck fat and melt into the scallops whilst the texture comes from the just cooked cauliflower. I don’t expect many to want to cook this at home but thought I’d share it with you anyway….
Scallops with Duck Confit and Malay Curry
Miles,
Everything is starting to look like forbidden fruit to me lately … which is quite normal during a lengthy diet plan which excludes scrumptious morsels like this. However when I release myself from this constraint, I could easily be persuaded to sample such a gorgeous dish.
I doubt whether many home cooks would think of putting these ingredients together in one dish, or quite frankly, how to begin to construct something like this. Which is precisely why we need your expertise to broaden our culinary horizons. My boss wanted to know about preserved lemons today and I was able to tell him how they are prepared thanks to you…. just one little example. For a man you’re quite useful
Cid
November 23, 2009 @ 7:20 pm
Chef,
how exactly did you cook the cauliflower ?
Looks fantastic
Rod
November 23, 2009 @ 7:35 pm
Hi Miles
Eek! Your scallops are naked!
They need to be wrapped in more of your wonderful sauce!
(Seriously, nice variation - I’m just enough of a traditionalist to want a curry to be a curry)
Laura
November 24, 2009 @ 2:10 am
Rod,
I just blanched the cauliflower in boiling salted water and then browned them in a shallow pan with oil, butter and a little five spice powder before finishing them in a hot oven.
Miles
November 24, 2009 @ 6:58 pm
Laura,
I know what you mean, the sauce is very moorish but I don’t like to spoil the customers. Treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen
Miles
November 24, 2009 @ 7:00 pm
Hi Miles,
This is Peter (from the Motorhead blog) unashamably poking my nose in to this subject.
I’m actually looking for a little advice on what appears to be another subject you are expert at. Namely Seafood cooking.
Right, thats the grovelling over, To cut a long story short I am expecting to open a small business selling shellfish at the seaside, but one of the main items I want to sell is local caught mussels, in either spicy tomato or a white wine & garlic sauce.
Any tips you can give me on how best to cook mussels would be really appreciated.
For example, is there a limit to how long they can be kept on the boil? Will I need to rustle them up a portion at a time? Considering that I’m hoping for about 100 customers a day…how best can I manage this?
Not sure if you charge for this type of advice, but if you do, please just say …it will be worth it for me. Failing that, can you point me in the right direction.
And yes, I am as passionate about seafood as I am about Motorhead !
I do hope I can find this link to this blog again …I kind of stumbled accross it.
If not, I’m on pjknowles@hotmail.co.uk
Cheers.
November 27, 2009 @ 7:32 pm
By the way, that Scallop / Duck starter made my taste buds light up …thats exactly the sort of dish I would pay £10 plus for in a specialist seafood restaurant.
Just sublime…I’m gonna try it.
November 27, 2009 @ 7:37 pm
Peter,
Good to hear from you on a different post!! Your venture sounds great, good for you. For me mussels are best cooked and served, if they hang around for too long they become rubbery and being shellfish with the risks attached to them they would have to be maintained at a high temperature which makes for poorer results.
My advice would be to have a pot of hot sauce ticking over on the side, have plenty of hot pans so that your cleaned mussels go straight into a hot pan, open quickly and maintain their temperature throughout. Speed is vital so make it easy on yourself.
Hope that helps.
regards
Miles
November 27, 2009 @ 10:40 pm