Eat yourself healthy with Scallops and Chilli

Eat yourself beautiful and healthy. This is good for the skin, hair and nails. Scallops are rich in minerals that mop up toxins from your body. They also slow down the oxidation of fatty acid, preserving the elasticity of the skin.

Seared Scallops with Minted Pea Puree

Serves:4

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Marinating time: 1hour

Who would think that whilst scuba diving I would have the opportunity to catch our dinner, which would turn out to be one of the healthiest foods you could eat.  We were on a dive trip off the coast of Cornwall last August on the “Wave Chieftan 3”, a film crew boat that also serves as a dive boat on occasion. Our Captain Nigel had loads of great stories to tell and after informing us that the week before Brad Pitt was on board filming his new movie, (I’ll be looking out for the release of that) we had some options for our next dive.  Scuba diving offers lots of variety and I didn’t know quite was in store for this trip.  After our first dive whilst fishing for supper (Mackerel and White Bait) we were given the opportunity to dive for Scallops.  Hmm, ok I thought, this sound interesting, a first for me and after a discussion with the rest of the dive crew we all agreed.  We took two catch bags and collected the most amazing haul of Scallops. It was truly amazing not only to catch the Scallops in the first place but also to be in a position to eat them at their absolute freshest.  At our friends house he showed us how to cook them with the recipe below, which was scrumptious but also very healthy. Hope you enjoy

    Juice of half an orange

    2 tbsp soy sauce

    1tbsp good quality honey (Manuka if possible)

    1tbsp olive oil

    1tbsp rice vinegar

    Sea salt and ground black pepper

    12 large scallops without the coral, prepared, rinsed and dried

    1 long red chilli, seeded and finely chopped

    2tbsp chopped fresh coriander

    4 thin lime wedges for decoration

For the puree

    225g Petit Pois

    vegetable stock

    1tbsp extra-virgin olive

    3tbsp chopped fresh mint

Mix together the orange juice, soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar and olive oil in a large shallow dish. Season with salt and pepper then add the scallops and turn to coat them in the marinade

Cover and allow to marinade in the fridge for up to 1hr (no longer or the scallops will start to cook in the juice.

To make the pea puree, place the peas in a pan and cover with vegetable stock. Bring to the boil and cook for 2-3 minutes until tender. Drain the peas, reserving 6tbsp of the stock for later.

Return the peas and the reserved stock to the pan and warm through. Mash the peas with a potato masher to make a coarse puree. Stir in the olive oil and mint, then season with pepper.

Heat a large griddle pan over a high heat. Griddle the scallops for one minute each side until seared. Divide the puree between 4 plates and top with the scallops. Scatter overt the chilli and coriander and service with lime wedges for squeezing over.