This dish is an absolute show-stopper. We serve scallops in a variety of different ways at Ondine, but this version is my all-time favourite. A good friend of the last ten years Guy Grieves owns The Ethical Shellfish Company. Ondine was the very first restaurant Guy supplied. I vividly remember him walking into the restaurant for the first time with his bright yellow waders on with the most amazing hand-caught scallops. His ethics on conservation are something I greatly admire and support. It’s important not to be buying dredged scallops as they have such a devastating effect on our sea beds. That’s why we work with fantastic suppliers like The Ethical Fish Company. To my friend Guy, we salute you.
Ondine is located at 2 George IV Bridge in Edinburgh. For more information, visit https://www.ondinerestaurant.co.uk.
Serves 4 to 5 as a starter
For the bacon jam:
50g smoked bacon, thinly sliced
30g onion, diced
8 garlic cloves, finely chopped
50ml sherry vinegar
50g dark brown sugar
3 tbsp maple syrup
20ml fresh espresso coffee
20ml olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the scallops:
10 large scallops, shucked and cleaned (make sure to keep the cleaned shells for serving)
50g parsley butter
50ml brown chicken stock, reduced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
100g puff pastry, cut into 2cm x 30cm strips
2 free-range eggs, beaten
To serve:
Sea salt
Method:
1. First, make the bacon jam. Cook the bacon in the olive oil until crispy then strain the fat and keep the bacon to one side. Return the bacon fat to the pan and sweat down the onion and garlic until soft. Add the vinegar, sugar, syrup and espresso and then return the bacon to the pan and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. Once the juices become syrupy in texture, remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool. Once cooled, taste and season with salt and pepper as necessary.
2. Next, prepare the scallops. Preheat the oven to 200°C. In a thick-bottomed pan, bring the chicken stock to the boil on the hob. Remove the pan from the heat then fold through a tablespoon of the bacon jam.
3. Brush the scallops all over with the parsley butter and season with salt and pepper.
4. Spoon a teaspoon of the bacon jam and stock mixture into the bottom halves of the shells and place the scallop on top.
5. Place the other half of the shell on top of each scallop and place a puff pastry strip carefully right around the gap where the shells meet. The seal is important as it will lock in all of the juices and flavour as the scallop cooks. The scallop will steam in the shell, cooking very gently and evenly. If the seal is not tight enough then the heat from the oven will enter the shell and overcook it. Brush the pastry and top of the shell with the beaten egg.
6. Place the scallops on a baking tray, standing each one on a ring of scrunched foil to keep them level. Cook in the preheated oven for 8 minutes.
7. To serve, open the shells and top each scallop with a little more bacon jam and serve on a bed of wet rock salt.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here