Its simple, its elegant, its romantic, its soon to be your favorite appetizer! These homemade golden seared scallops are restaurant quality. With a succulent creamy parsnip puree, herb drizzle, and micro-greens. This appetizer has the perfect balance of spice, citrus, earthiness, and so much more!
The Parsnip Puree
First things first, what’s a parsnip? Parsnip is an underrated root vegetable, that looks like a pale carrot. This root vegetable is related to the carrot as well as parsley. The best time to purchase this amazing root vegetable is between fall and spring. The taste of a parsnip is like a combination of potatoes and sweet carrots. Alright, enough about that let’s make it!
This puree is pretty straight-forward. First you’ll need to remove the skin of the parsnip and cut off the bud. Next, cut the parsnip in halve and move to a saucepan. Also add to the saucepan the following: whole milk, heavy cream, garlic gloves, thyme (optional), and unsalted butter. The reason for adding the whole milk is to balance out the richness/thickness from the heavy cream. Bring the saucepan to a boil, then reduce the heat and cover the pan. Allow the mixture to cook for 11-15, if you notice a significant amount of liquid still remaining. Uncover the saucepan and allow to cook for an additional 2-5 minutes, until the liquid reduces by half.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and remove the optional thyme sprig. Puree your parsnip in a blender or food processor until smooth. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.
The Herb Sauce
The finishing touches of the green sauce as well as micro-greens leads to something pretty darn spectacular! So where could you find micro-greens? I can always count on Whole Foods to have these in stock, but if don’t live near one check out amazon. There’s non-GMO sprouting seeds you could plant such as arugula, radish, or sunflower. Alright, that’s enough talk about micro-greens…let’s get into this sauce!
To make this citrus green sauce you’ll need a few ingredients: parsley, lemon, salt, pepper, tarragon, chives, garlic, shallot, and olive oil. First, dice a small size shallot and saute in an oil pan for few minutes. This process allows the shallots to sweet a little and begin to develop their amazing taste profile. Next, add in slice garlic, along with a little salt and pepper. Give the pan a quick stir and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes. Transfer the cooked garlic and shallots to a food processor, add in a handful of the herbs as well. Drizzle in the olive oil, little lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Blend all of these amazing ingredients together until completed pureed. Boom the sauce is ready. Use the herb sauce to decorate the plate however you desire.
The Seared Scallops
Now let’s talk about the best part of this dish….the seared scallops. For the best experience, I will ALWAYS recommend that you use wild caught sea scallops. Why you ask? Fresh and real will always be a better option than farm raised seafood. Also, sea scallops are bigger, have a fresh flavor, and taste sweeter. So, just like filet mignon, you have to develop the flavor of your sea scallops. Transfer the sea scallops to a clean plate and pat them dry using a paper towel. This step removes any access liquid along with muscles. Making it easier to season the sea scallops with salt and pepper.
The key to a greatly seared scallop is having a hot pan. With a saute pan on high heat, add unsalted butter and olive oil to the pan. Once the fat begins to smoke a little, add in the sea scallops. But make sure the scallops are not touching one another in the saute pan. Sear the scallops for about 1.5-2 minutes per side. At this time, I like to add fresh sprigs of herbs to the saute pan. Herbs such as tarragon or thyme really work best with scallops. Then, I’ll add an additional tablespoon of unsalted butter and begin to base the scallops with the herb butter. This isn’t necessary, but I must say it does increase the flavor profile of the sea scallops.
Once the scallops are nicely golden….plate them nicely and serve immediately.
Interested in more appetizer recipes? Check out the ones below:
Seared Scallops with Parsnip Puree
Ingredients
- 1 lb. Sea scallops
- 4 Garlic cloves thinly sliced
- ½ cup Heavy cream
- ½ cup Whole milk
- 1 lb. Parsnip peeled and chopped
- 5 tbsp Unsalted butter divided
- Kosher salt
- Fresh ground black pepper
- 2 tsp Extra virgin Olive Oil
- 1 tsp Lemon zest
- ½ cup Olive oil
- 1 Small shallot chopped
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- ¼ cup Fresh chives finely chopped
- ¼ cup Fresh Tarragon finely chopped
- ⅓ cup Fresh parsley finely chopped
- Microgreens garnish
Instructions
Parsnip Puree
- Bring 3 garlic gloves, heavy cream, whole milk, 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, and parsnips to boil in a medium saucepan. Season the puree with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Next, reduce the heat, cover the pan, and cook the parsnips until soft for 10-15 minutes.
- Uncover the pan and continue to cook until the liquid has reduced in half, approximatley 5-6 minutes. Puree in a blender until smooth. Set aside.
Herb Sauce
- In a small pan, add 1 teaspoon of extra virgin ollive oil. Sauté together chopped shallots until tender (approximately 2-4 minutes). Next add in the sliced garlic, along with a little salt and pepper. Give the pan a quick stir and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Transfer the cooked garlic and shallots to a food processor, add in the chopped herbs as well. Drizzle in the olive oil, little lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Blend all of these amazing ingredients together until completed pureed. Boom the sauce is ready.
Sea Scallops
- Add 2 tablepsoons of butter and 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil to a high heat pan. Pat dry the scallops and season with salt and pepper.
- Once the pan is hot (the fat begins to burn 3-4 minutes), gently add the scallops. Leaving enough room between each scallops. Sear the scallops for 1.5-2 minutes on each side. While cooking, spoon the butter over the scallops.
- Plate the scallops with a spoonful of parnship puree and herb sauce. Serve immediately.