You are here:

Seared scallops and sweetbreads with radish salad

Michel Lemoine from Great Food Live
Impress your guests with Michel Lemoine's sophisticated starter, a stylish combination of scallops, sweetbreads and a tangy lemon reduction

Seared scallops and sweetbreads with radish salad

Method

1. First prepare the sweetbreads. Soak them in cold water for three hours, changing the water frequently. Remove any white membrane and fat.

2. Stud an onion with 2 cloves and place in a saucepan with the bay leaf, chicken stock and salt and freshly ground pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook the sweetbreads for about 12 minutes, or until they are pale in colour.

3. Leave the sweetbreads to cool in the stock before removing them from the pan. Place them between two flat plates and put a light weight on top to flatten. Leave in the fridge for 2-2 1/2 hours. Slice each sweetbread into 4 slices.

4. Boil the potatoes for 20 minutes, drain and leave to cool. Peel and grate the potatoes and season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

5. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and place a 10cm pastry cutter in the centre. Gently press in a 5mm layer of grated potato into the cutter. Remove the cutter and make three more potato rounds.

6. Fry the rounds very quickly over a high heat, turning them once, until they're golden brown on both sides. Keep warm.

7. Place the flour on a plate, season the sweetbreads with salt and freshly ground pepper and toss them in the flour. Heat 25g of butter in a heavy-based frying pan and fry until golden on both sides. Remove the sweetbreads from the pan and keep warm.

8. Season the scallops and add them to the same pan with thyme and 1 tablepoon of olive oil. Sear for about 30 seconds on each side - take care not to overcook, they should still be opaque on the inside.

9. Remove the thyme sprigs from the pan, pour away any excess fat and add half a teaspoon of lemon juice. Turn the scallops over in this reduction a couple of times and then remove.

10. Pour the remaining lemon juice into the pan, cook it down completely, then add the chicken stock and a pinch of thyme leaves. Cook down until reduced by about a third, add the remaining butter, and blend with a hand blender until the buttery sauce goes a lovely pale colour. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

11. Meanwhile, prepare the salad. First make the lemon dressing by whisking together the extra-virgin olive oil and, lemon juice and season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

12. Toss together the spring onion, carrot, radish and parsley and toss with the lemon dressing.

13. Put a potato round on each plate and top each one with sweetbread slices and a scallop. Garnish with a sprig of thyme, pour a little of the lemon and thyme sauce over each portion and finish with a heap of radish salad. Serve at once.

Comments add a comment

Be the first to add a comment...

Serves: 4

Prep: 45 min, plus soaking and chilling
Cook: 55 min

Ingredients

For the sweetbreads

200g sweetbreads
400ml fresh chicken stock, to cover
1 onion, peeled
2 Cloves
1 bay leaf
1 pinch salt and fresh ground black pepper
50g plain flour
25g Butter

For the potatoes

300g Maris Piper potatoes
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 pinch salt and fresh ground black pepper

For the scallops

1 tbsp Olive oil
4 Scallops, raw and prepared
4 thyme sprigs, plus extra for garnishing
2 tbsp lemon, juice
200ml chicken stock
1 pinch salt and fresh ground black pepper
75g Butter

For the radish salad

100g unsalted Butter
25g Spring onions, cut into short fine strips
25g Carrots, cut into short fine strips
25g Radishes, cut into short fine strips
25g flat-leaf parsley sprigs