I left the house with a busy agenda and a pile of cooking magazines with sticky notes. The plan was to shop for the ingredients needed for a scallop recipe, a curry that looked interesting, unique and not too time consuming. When I pulled out my magazines to make a shopping list I realized I didn’t have the issue of Food and Wine that I needed. So I turned to my phone, googling “Food and Wine magazine scallop recipe”. I didn’t find the recipe I had in mind but found one that sounded just as good, and I had all the ingredients I needed at home.
I didn’t know it when I first chose it but it was the featured recipe in the back page column “Most Wanted”. The article was titled, “Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Iconic Seared Scallops”. It is iconic because it is one of the signature dishes from the tasting menu that has been offered at Jean-Georges since 1998.
What makes the recipe unique is the sauce and the way it was discovered.To gain inspiration, Vongerichten will walk around the stations of his restaurant, tasting ingredients. As the story goes, one day he popped a caper in his mouth at one station, a few seconds later, a raisin at another. These two ingredients created a sweet and sour combination, a “taste explosion” in his mouth and caper raisin sauce was born.
I thought the pairing was intriguing and quite plausible, I often make a chard recipe that includes raisins and capers, along with olives, pine nuts, lemon and garlic and capers and raisins are often included in the ingredients for caponata, an Italian eggplant relish.
The vegetable in Vongerichten’s dish was cauliflower, another personal favorite. I love to toss cauliflower florets with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a very hot oven. The finished dish I refer to as “cauliflower popcorn” and more often than not, is finished before we sit down to the table.
The one thing I didn’t like, or at least didn’t want to splurge the extra calories on, was the ten tablespoons of butter required in the original recipe! I was certain I could work around that. I seared my scallops in a hot pan as I always do with a neutral cooking oil, not butter. I place my scallops in the pan like the numbers on a clock, starting at 12 and working my way around, extra ones go in the middle. That way I know which scallop to flip first. I tossed the cauliflower florets with some olive oil and roasted them in the oven, until they started to turn brown in spots. The sauce contained the most butter, a whopping six tablespoons. Golden raisins are a must in this recipe, dark raisins would make a most unattractive color with the green capers. I plumped the raisins and capers in water as directed, drained them, reduced the cooking liquid by one half and added that to the blender to make the sauce along with sherry vinegar. The sauce is sweet and tart from the raisins and sherry vinegar, and briny from the capers Not the exact recipe but definitely a lighter and just as flavorful one.
Seared Scallops with Roasted Cauliflower and Caper Raisin Sauce
Serves four as an appetizer
Ingredients
- 1/3 c capers, drained, not rinsed
- 1/4c golden raisins
- 1T sherry vinegar
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- Olive oil
- Canola oil
- 4c small cauliflower florets (you will have some leftover, allow for breakage)
- 2T finely minced parsley
- 12 large dry packed sea scallops, outer muscle removed
Directions
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- In a small saucepan, combine the capers, raisins and 3/4 cup of water. Simmer over moderately low heat until the raisins are plump, about 10-15 minutes. Do not let it come to a boil. Drain the capers and raisins and transfer them to a blender, reserving the liquid. Return the liquid to the pan and boil until it is reduced by one half. With the blender on add the reduced liquid and sherry vinegar until incorporated. Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper.
- In a large bowl toss cauliflower florets with a little olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Transfer cauliflower to a baking sheet, and roast, shaking pan occasionally to caramelized all sides, about 10 minutes.
- Brush a large non stick skillet lightly with canola oil. Season the scallops with salt and pepper and add one half to the pan. Cook over moderately high heat without turning, until the scallops are golden brown on the bottom, about 3 minutes. Turn the scallops over and cook until browned on the other side. Repeat the process with the remaining scallops.
- Rewarm the caper raisin sauce, press through a sieve if a finer texture is desired.
- Arrange scallops on plates, spoon some sauce on the plate. Arrange cauliflower on the scallop and garnish with chopped parsley.
