Having worked at Noma and with Tom Aikens, Sellers is now opening his own restaurant, Story, in early April
This week’s guest recipe comes from Tom Sellers. Having worked at Noma and with Tom Aikens, Sellers is now opening his own restaurant, Story, in early April.
With the booking lines opening tomorrow here is a preview of what you can look forward to; a little preparation is needed but you’ll end up with something rather special.
Scallop, Cucumber and Dill Ash
Ingredients
2 x scallop in shell
5 bunches of dill
200ml double cream
20ml whole milk
1 fresh horseradish
200g fresh elderflower
100g white wine vinegar
100ml water
5g salt
5g sugar
4 cucumbers
5 cucumber flowers
10g wild nasturtium leaves
Maldon salt to taste
Preparation
Pick out 6 elderflowers to dress and put to one side.
Remove scallop from shell, clean and prepare. Slice into 3mm discs.
Gently wash cucumber flower and nasturtium leaves.
Make the elderflower vinegar. To do this, bring the sugar, salt and vinegar to the boil and infuse with the remaining elderflowers for at least 8 hours.
To make the horseradish cream, combine the double cream and milk together and finely grate in half a stick of horseradish. Leave to infuse for 2 hours only then strain.
To make the dill oil, pick the dill and blanch in salted water for 7 minutes and put straight into iced water to refresh. Lay out on a tray and leave to dry. Once fully dry add to the oil and blend thoroughly – use half the amount of vegetable oil to dill in weight. Heat the oil to allow the flavours to infuse but cool after to preserve colour.
To make the dill ash, peel cucumbers using a knife to remove more flesh than just the skin. Place the skins onto a hot BBQ and burn until back and all moisture is removed. Then place into a spice grinder and blend to a fine black ash.
Take the remaining cucumber and scoop out (parisienne) 10 balls.
Method
Place scallops onto tray and lightly pickle with elderflower vinegar and Maldon sea salt.
Place 5 cucumber balls also in the elderflower vinegar.
Take another 5 cucumber balls and place into a bowl with 1tbls of dill ash and 1tbls of dill oil. Mix until completely black.
Mix remainder of dill oil with the strained horseradish cream in a 50/50 solution.
To plate, lay 4 pieces of marinated scallops on the plate. Around this place the 2 types of cucumber balls. Add flowers and leaves around plate to add height.
To finish, lightly spoon on the dill and cream sauce in and around the scallops.
Bookings for Story can be made on 020 7183 2117. Story, 201 Tooley Street, SW1 2UE
Read more recipes from Food Friday
Don’t miss out on the best of Spear’s articles – sign up to the Spear’s weekly newsletter