Seared Scallops with Cauliflower Puree

When my husband offered to make anything I wanted to eat, this was what I requested - seared scallops with cauliflower puree. I love seared scallops, but haven't tried to make it again myself because it's turned out terribly the last couple of times. I overcrowded the pan, the pan wasn't hot enough, I cooked the scallops too long, ended up steaming them rather than searing them.....list goes on.

This time, however, beautiful! Restaurant quality even ;)  But that just means my husband is a great cook, not me haha!

Ingredients

10 scallops

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt

Lemon

For the cauliflower puree

Half a head of cauliflower (roughly chopped)

About 1 cup milk (or enough to cover the cauliflower in the saucepan)

2 tablespoons butter

Salt & pepper

1. Place cauliflower, milk and butter in a saucepan. Simmer for 10mins.

2. Blend while still hot (another thing I learnt is that if you blend it once it cools you might get a grainy texture). Season to taste.

5 dollops of cauliflower puree for the 5 seared scallops

3. Pre-heat the frying pan and add oil. Meanwhile, pat dry the scallops and sprinkle salt all over (yes, another not: Sprinkle the salt as high as you can because this will make sure you don't have clumps on one area of the scallop)

 Once you can see the pan is hot enough (ie you will see smoke coming off the pan), throw in the scallops making sure you do not overcrowd the pan (another note: do not swirl the pan as this will release the juices from the scallops which will affect how sweet they taste later). Cook for 1min on one side and then turn and cook for 30 seconds on the other side.

Smokin!

4. Put them straight on top of the puree and serve.

Yet another note: Allow the scallops to rest on the puree for about 2mins before you eat it. In my eagerness to try one it was really chewy, but later trying the others with a squeeze of lemon juice, I found them to be delectable! 

Translucent on the inside, perfectly cooked!  Well done chef!!

And that cauliflower puree.....yum! I literally drank it out of the blender (coz I'm all class!). What an awesome dish. Thanks so much Laurence! I just have to convince him now to do these blog posts for me hehehe