Salt-Crusted Sea Scallops

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A salt crust stands in for a sous vide pouch in this delicious seafood dish with a beautiful presentation.

Ingredients

For the Compressed Spinach:

24 spinach leaves
1 tsp truffle oil
Pinch of kosher salt
Pinch of ground pepper

For the Garlic Confit Marinade:

1 garlic bulb (you will use 4 cloves)
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp truffle oil
4 Tbsp white wine
1 tsp kosher salt

For the Salt-Crusted Scallops:

12 sea scallops, fresh
1 C sea salt
4 eggs, whites only
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ C flour

For the Sauce:

4 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 C shallots, minced
2 C vermouth
4 C heavy cream
Pinch of white pepper
1 tsp kosher salt

Overview

Equipment

Sous vide circulator

Large sous vide pouch

Rolling pin

Pastry brush

Small saucepan

 

Timing

Prepping time: 2 hours / Cooking time: 1 hour and 40 minutes (excludes sous vide cooking)

Servings

4 servings

Directions

For the Compressed Spinach:

  1. Place leaves as flat as possible in a sous vide bag along with oil, salt, and pepper.
  2. Seal and allow pressure to compress the spinach leaves for about an hour at room temperature. They will have an appearance of being cooked. Keep in the pouch until ready to wrap scallops.

 

For the Garlic Confit Marinade:

  1. Tightly wrap garlic bulb in aluminum foil with olive oil and salt. Place in an oven at 350°F (176.6°C) for 45 minutes and set aside to cool. 
  2. Once cooled, gently peel and remove 4 garlic cloves. Combine cloves with the white wine and truffle oil and set aside for scallops.

 

For the Salt-Crusted Scallops:

  1. Marinate scallops in sealed sous vide pouch with the garlic confit marinade for 2 hours.
  2. Cook marinated scallops at 126.6°F (52°C) for 10 minutes. After cooking, transfer to an ice-water bath.
  3. Mix salt, egg whites, and 1 cup of flour together until it has a consistency similar to dough. On a work surface sprinkled with about a ½ cup of flour, cover salt dough with plastic wrap and use a rolling pin to roll mixture flat until ¼ inch thick.
  4. Cut out two large 2-inch circles and one long 1- by 6-inch rectangle for each scallop. The sizes may vary depending on the scallops, but should be able to encompass the entire scallop.
  5. Remove scallops from the sous vide pouch, wrap with two spinach leaves each, then wrap the scallops with the circular egg-salt cutouts. One circular cutout each should go on the top and bottom of the scallop, with the rectangular cutout wrapping around the sides (imagine a tin can).
  6. Brush evenly with egg wash. Place scallops on a baking tray and cook in oven for 7 minutes at 450°F (232.2°C) or until crusts turn light brown.

 

For the Sauce:

  1. In a small saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat and sauté shallots until translucent.
  2. Add vermouth to deglaze and reduce to 4 tablespoons of liquid, for up to 10 minutes.
  3. Add heavy cream, salt, and pepper and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes on low-medium heat. Season to taste.

 

To Serve:

  1. Once done, place scallops in center of plate, open or remove salt crust (crust is not edible) and drizzle sauce around the plate.
  2. Garnish with microgreens if desired.