So this dish of pan-fried scallops with black pudding and chorizo not only looks stunning but tastes stunning. So if you want something a little bit more special for a weeknight tea, maybe a Friday night, this is the thing to go for. Or if you’ve got friends coming over, this is quick and simple to do and looks impressive.

​Ingredients

Okay, so what you need is fresh king scallops. You need about four to five scallops per person, and you want to get to your fishmonger and make sure they’re out of the shell. And then you make sure that you line them on kitchen paper and they’re completely dry.

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You also want black pudding. I think it’s got the best flavor. I’m going to fry that till it’s crisp, but we’ll come to that in a minute.

Chorizo, you can just buy the ready-to-eat sliced chorizo, so that comes in a packet, or you can buy a cooking sausage and use that. Again, it’s up to you how much time you’ve got and how much effort you want to put into this.

Your aromatics and extras again: olive oil, butter, salt and pepper, squeeze away with garnish. And for garnishing this, I like to use watercress, and I like to use some strips of apple as well, because it cuts through the butter and richness of it.

Steps

So first of all, what we need to do is crisp up our chorizo. So, in a hot frying pan with just a tiny touch of olive oil, you’re going to put your chorizo pieces in until they go nice and crisp. It will release some of its lovely gorgeous red fat, but that’s what we’re going to use to fry the black pudding in and also the scallops.

So in the same pan that you’ve just used, you’re going to take a side, same pan, and fry the black pudding slices for two to three minutes per side until it’s going to be crisp and brown around the edges. Then again, take that out.

Then we’re ready to sear the scallops, and make sure you pat them dry with a paper towel. Season this up with salt and pepper. And then, in your frying pan, make sure it’s hot. I keep the bottom of the frying pan, and you want it to get nice and hot.

So we’re going to put in a splash of oil, and we’re going to cook these quickly, so make sure you remember where you put them in. So start at 12:00 and place them around the pan like a clock face.

So one to two minutes on the first side without moving it, and then you’re going to lift it, and it should have a nice golden, crisp, seared underside. If it looks like that, turn it over. If it’s still white, no pink, your pan is not hot; turn it up to get that nice and charred.

If it’s nice and golden, turn it over and cook for one more minute on the other side until it’s nice and golden. Your scallops should be opaque and still opaque in the middle; if you cook them too long, they’ll go very rubbery.

Plating​

Now we’re ready to plate, and I like to do this on a nice white, clean plate, so it shows off the different colors. So your black pudding, the white scallops, and some nice white plate if you’ve got it. So first of all, I’m going to place a side of watercress in the middle of my plate, so you get a nice vibrant green color.

So I’m going to put like a handful of watercress in the middle of the plate. I like to cut up some strips of this, little matchsticks of apple, and I’m going to just drop them around on top of the watercress. And then we’re ready to put your black pudding.

You can place that, can be three bits around your watercress, and then top with a nice seared scallop. And then you can place your crispy chorizo on top of that.

And then in your pan you’ll have some juices, and I would just squeeze some lemon into that, swirl it around, so you’ve got a lemony olive oil dressing to go on top. So drizzle some of that over, cut up some chives to go on top, and that’s you ready to go and serve with some wedges of lemon. Delicious, looks fantastic, looks very impressive, the flavors are fantastic.

You could mix it up; you could serve it with some cauliflower puree or pea puree.

Fiona MacLean

Pan-Fried Scallops with Black Pudding and Chorizo

Fresh king scallops are seared in chorizo-infused oil and served with crisp black pudding, chorizo, watercress and apple, finished with a lemon-olive oil dressing.

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Servings: 4 per person

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 4-5 scallops per person king scallops fresh, out of shell, dried on kitchen paper
• black pudding sliced; another good local black pudding can be substituted
• chorizo sliced ready-to-eat chorizo or cooking chorizo sausage
• olive oil a touch for frying chorizo, plus a splash for searing scallops
• butter
• salt to season scallops
• pepper to season scallops
• lemon squeezed into pan juices for dressing; extra wedges to serve
• watercress for garnish, placed in center of plate
• apple cut into matchstick strips for garnish
• chives chopped, for garnish

Method

 

1. Pat scallops completely dry on kitchen paper.
2. Heat a frying pan with a tiny touch of olive oil and fry chorizo until crisp; it will release red, flavorful oil.
3. Remove chorizo. In the same pan, fry black pudding slices 2-3 minutes per side until crisp with browned edges, then remove.
4. Pat scallops dry again with paper towel and season with salt and pepper.
5. Heat the same frying pan with a splash of oil until very hot.
6. Place scallops in the pan starting at the 12 o’clock position and arrange them around the pan like a clock face, so you remember the order to turn them.
7. Cook scallops 1-2 minutes on the first side without moving them, until a golden, crisp seared underside forms; if still white with no color, the pan isn’t hot enough—turn up the heat.
8. Turn scallops over and cook 1 more minute on the other side until golden. Scallops should be opaque in the middle; don’t overcook or they become rubbery.
9. On a clean white plate, place a handful of watercress in the center for a vibrant green base.
10. Scatter apple matchsticks over the watercress.
11. Arrange black pudding slices (about three) around the watercress, top each with a seared scallop, then top with crispy chorizo.
12. Squeeze lemon into the pan juices and swirl to make a lemony olive oil dressing; drizzle over the dish.
13. Top with chopped chives and serve with lemon wedges.

Notes

Can be served alongside cauliflower purée or pea purée as an alternative.