Make the
Jellies.
Clean and Prepare the fish:
Check over each scallop. Dry it on kitchen paper, removing any bits of shell.
Remove any of the tough muscle along the side which joins the scallop to its shell.
Cut away any of the dark veiny threads in the roe-coloured coral
that look like intestines or a digestive tract.
Run a cook's knife or fish scaler along the skin of the Sea Bass fillets to completely remove any scales.
Do this thoroughly in both directions.
Carefully remove any bones using fish tweezers like these
Global 12cm Fish Bone Tweezers.
Slice away the thin flaps along the bottom of the fillet in parallel with the cut along the spine side.
Neatly slice off any neck flaps along a diagonal.
Now cut the fillet into lozenges by slicing diagonal sections across the fillets until the fillet is used up.
Rub the skin of these lozenges with Maldon sea salt just before frying.
Prepare the
Raisin & Caper Salsa and the
Celery Purée.
Prepare (but don't cook) the
Emerald Spinach Leaves
and the
Crispy Beetroot Spirals (which can be part-fried).
Prepare a selection of celery and cauliflower pieces for decoration:
Slice a small amount of selected tiny cauliflower florets and thin celery stalks.
Parboil them in celery stock. Drain and reserve.
Warm the salsa, the purée and serving plates.
Prepare the serving plates each with a slice of the Celery and the Beetroot jellies.
Cook the fish:
Fry the scallops with their coral over high heat in clarified butter, about 20 seconds per side
or until the scallop has turned golden and the flesh is starting to turn opaque up the side.
Set aside in a warm dish. Mix any juices and pan scrapings into the Raisin & Caper salsa.
Fry the salted Sea Bass Lozenges over a high heat in clarified butter.
Cook them skin-side down until the skin is crispy and the flesh has whitened almost all the way through
then flip them briefly to finish off the fleshy side.
You can do this in the same pan after frying the scallops if you are short of space.
Meanwhile finish off the crispy vegetable decoration:
Deep-fry the spinach leaves in small batches in groundnut oil until they become transparent
and set to drain in single layers on sheets of kitchen paper.
Then deep-fry the spiralized beetroot (in batches if necessary) until it begins to turn golden.
It helps here if the beetroot has already been pre-fried once half-way.
Drain in a metal sieve, then on kitchen paper.
As soon as the Sea Bass is ready
spoon a small amount of Raisin & Caper salsa onto each plate
(this has a very strong flavour - so don't overwhelm the scallops with too much),
decorate with a scattering of choice parboiled vegetable pieces,
top with 3 scallops, a grating of nutmeg and fork over a small nest of crispy beetroot.
Now spoon a generous puddle of Celery Purée onto each plate
top with two or three of the Sea Bass Lozenges skin-side up,
scatter over around 5 Emerald Spinach Leaves.
Serve.