Serves 4
Takes a little over 2 hours
The combination of flavours and textures in this lovely dish is super; sweet and salty, smooth and crispy, with a clean, zingy tang. You will need to make mayonnaise for it, and sourdough is definitely the best bread to serve it with
200g raw beetroot
2 tsps red wine vinegar
3 tsps sherry vinegar
½ a small shallot, very finely chopped
1 tsp finely chopped thyme leaves
4 tbsps olive oil
300g very fresh, good quality scallops, corals removed
3 rashers unsmoked back bacon
1 Granny Smith apple
2 tsps finely chopped gherkin
2 tsps finely chopped chives
2 tsps homemade mayonnaise
Salt and pepper
4 slices of sourdough bread
Mild salad leaves
- We find baking beetroot in the oven preserves the flavour much better than boiling them. Wrap them in tinfoil first, and, if they’re medium sized, bake for approximately 40 minutes in an oven set to 200C. Once they’re cooked and cooled down enough to handle, peel them, and cut into 1cm dice, and put in a glass bowl. Mix in the sherry vinegar, the shallot and the thyme. Drizzle over the olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and leave for at least 2 hours
- Under a medium grill, grill the bacon until very crispy. Leave to cool, the chop into 5mm pieces
- Cut the scallops into 5mm dice. Peel, quarter and core the apple, and cut into 5mm dice. Put the scallops and apple into a glass bowl and add the gherkin, bacon and chives. Add the mayonnaise and stir in
- To serve, toast the slices of sourdough on both sides and put on 4 serving plates. Neatly spoon a quarter of the scallop mix onto each slice of toast. Neatly spoon a quarter of the beetroot mix beside each slice of toast, scatter with the salad leaves and serve