Runner Up
I participated in a small cooking contest last night, San Francisco Sweet & Savory, which one of my lovely co-workers organizes. The savory winner was a togarashi clam chowder, made by one of the fine chefs from Google. I took runner up in the savory category for this scallop crudo, which I swear I was going to make for you guys anyways!!!! Participating in a food competition and also transporting your food is a pretty wild experience – more on that later. First, I want to talk about this dish!
The primary inspiration for this little bite was finger limes, which I found at the farmers market. They are small (about the size of okra), are very fragrant and have thin, dark skin like an avocado. Inside, they are filled with little pearls that you can just scoop right out like caviar. So from the finger lime’s visual similarity to caviar I hopped over to thinking about what kind of a recipe I would like to make with caviar.
I love caviar paired with something equally rich – something that’s worthy of a treat. What I really wanted to put together was a scallop and uni crudo, topped with these lovely little pearls. But none of the local markets had uni this past week because the waters were pretty rough so the fishermen weren’t able to bring many in. When I started thinking about how to replace the sweet creaminess of uni, I immediately thought about either crème fraiche or a nice greek yogurt. I settled on crème fraiche for this recipe mostly because it’s easier to physically manipulate in the kitchen (translation: I can put it in a squeeze bottle to manage smaller, more precise plating than I can with greek yogurt). From there I really just played with a few ingredients to play up the sweetness of the fish and ensure freshness of the bite.
I’m not very precise with measurements, so this really isn’t much of a recipe.
- I used 1 scallop for 3 bites, slicing the scallop laterally into thirds. If you prefer to do a little tartare with this recipe instead of a crudo, then I think ½ scallop per person is a better proportion. If you are cooking for a smaller group, then you can size up accordingly. I was preparing spoons for 30, so you can be much more generous when you prepare this at home. Little tip for y’all: I find its best to freeze the scallops for about 45 minutes to firm them up before trying to slice or dice them.
- For the vanilla salt, I mixed salt with vanilla powder (or fresh scraping from 1 vanilla pod per tsp salt if you can’t find vanilla powder) in a 4:1 ratio. So ¼ tsp vanilla powder per 1 tsp salt.
- The Vietnamese cilantro is subtly spicy, so you can use 2-3 leaves per bite. If you can’t find Vietnamese cilantro, then you can replace it with a slice of Serrano or jalapeno pepper, about 1/8” thick with few or no seeds.
- For the citrus juice, I combined orange, lemon, and lime juice with a small amount of honey—do this to your taste.
To make each bite, I placed a few cilantro leaves on a soup spoon, topped that with a slice of scallop, topped with a pinch of vanilla salt, little squirt of citrus juice, little squirt of crème fraiche, top with 3 or 4 slivers of celery, then a nice spoonful of the finger lime. If you would prefer to make a nice little tartare with the same flavors, then you can do a fine dice of the scallops and celery and a little chiffonade with the herbs rather than slicing. Then I would combine all of the ingredients except the finger lime and serve on a rice cracker, nori, or some thinly sliced vegetable like radish or cucumber. Should be delicious!
I can imagine this dish so many different ways. I was surprised that my sweetie, who doesn’t usually eat fish at all, was such a fan of this little snack. I’m sure it will become a new workhorse in our kitchen and something that is really simple to put together when we have company over.
