Recommended prep time: 45 minutes
– Make Chantilly (whip cream with powdered sugar and a little vanilla)
– Cook a few slices of bacon in the oven at 300 degrees until done to your preference
– Slice some chives
– Tear up some mint leaves
Mise en place. Check.
We ended up taking advantage of the awesome weather and brought our meal to the park. To make my life easier, I decided to plate things family style instead of individually.
For the pasta:
Warm up the pea puree and spoon some little dots and streaks on a platter. Blanch the pasta. It will cook fast because it is fresh. Just taste it for tenderness. While it is still hot, toss it with some soft butter and the peas.
Pile up the pasta on one side of the platter now we will put a egg yolk in the middle of the pasta mound.
To garnish the dish, crack some pepper, and top with crumbled bacon, and a good amount of fresh grated parmesan cheese. To serve, toss it up to mix in the egg and
dish it for your guests.
For The Scallops:
Warm up some of the barley porridge with a little bit of butter and check for seasoning. Adjust the texture with stock or water. It should be like a soft risotto.
Warm up the cabbage and mint together with olive oil and a pinch of salt.
In a very hot pan with grapeseed oil, sear the scallops on both sides until they are golden brown. Do not put too many scallops in one pan. For a 9 inch pan, do no more than 7 at once or they won’t get nice color. You can either do 2 pans at once or do one pan twice. The scallops are done cooking when they are firm but not hard. They normally take about 4 minutes for a U10 scallop.
For family style I did a little something like this. Spoonfuls of porridge and dots of sherry reduction.
Now, pop the scallops on top of the barley and fill the negative space with the cabbage and mint. All thats missing is some of the pickled shallot and you’re in business.
Now, the most important part, dessert. Put a few brownies on a platter. Warm up the fudge sauce, and get your torch out.
Cut the bananas into 4 pieces. On the flat edge sprinkle turbinado sugar and caramelize it with the torch.
Put the bananas on top of the brownies with a few scoops of your ice cream, fudge sauce, and some whipped cream. Chances are, even if you messed everything else up, this will still win some new friends.
