"This recipe came to me after I traveled through Maine last fall. Seeing the lobsters and scallops come off the boats made me think that many of our guests don’t get to experience where something comes from, what it truly is, and how to best enjoy it.
"We got these beautiful live scallops, in the shell, and we shucked them ourselves. We removed the little gills, and eyes, and all the other little bits, to get to the beautiful adductor muscle that we commonly call the scallop. And that’s how I wanted to serve it."
Ingredients:
4 live scallops in the shell (Never put them in a plastic bag or in water. You will kill them. Keep them on ice, or in the refrigerator. If you can’t find them live, buy the absolute freshest you can get.)
2 oz yuzu juice
1 lemon, zest
Olive oil
1 tsp salt
Maldon sea salt to sprinkle on the scallops
1 small beet (cut into a brunoise, very small dice 1/8"x1/8"x1/8")
1 cup champagne vinegar
Method:
1. Bring champagne vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt to a boil. Add the diced beets, turn off the heat and let stand until the liquid reaches room temperature, about an hour.
2. Meanwhile, shuck the scallops, carefully removing the center adductor muscle. Rinse with cool water.
3. To serve, place each scallop on a small dish and season with yuzu juice, lemon zest, olive oil and the flakey Maldon sea salt. Garnish with the brunoise beets, and drizzle on some of the cooking liquid as well.
4. Serve in the cleaned shell.