So there's a new restaurant in Raleigh called Buku, and I ate there with a good friend the second day of their grand opening, the week before Valentine's Day. The food was excellent, as I expected, but something really caught my eye/tongue: their scallop dish. There was nothing particularly ingenious about it, it was simply very well-composed and executed. The point is that it got me thinking about scallops. I've never really created anything based upon scallops, and I felt the time was now.
I have a book called "Culinary Artistry", which I often turn to for a little inspiration in the form of guidance; there's a section in the book that lists a wide variety of 'main' ingredients and what typically goes well with them, as surveyed by a fairly thorough selection of talented non-celebrity chefs. There are even classical combinations in bold in these lists. Very handy if you're looking to either create a classicly inspired dish that emphasizes natural pairings of ingredients, or if you simply want a source of offbeat pairing ideas, which is almost always what I'm looking for.
Before referring to the book, I had somehow gotten the thought in my head that the sweetness of scallops would pair very nicely with something reminiscent of those 'dream sicle' popsicles I used to eat as a kid. This made me think "scallops with tangerine." So I open the book, and found the entry for scallops. Lo and behold, the first thing that caught my eye was mention of oranges! I felt I was really onto something, as cream was also mentioned.
I always feel good when a culinary thought crosses my brain and I learn that I'm not the only person who sees potential in the idea.
At this point, I brainstormed a bit, and decided that a dish with lightly sauteed scallops (lightly sauteed meaning little or no browning or searing, and a mid-rare meat) garnished with an orange-cream buerre blanc (I'll mention buerre blanc very often; it's a pretty standard French sauce based on a white wine reduction and finished with plenty of butter, gently melted in, and often also contains cream) would be a great idea. But still fairly ordinary, and ordinary IS NOT my style.
I thought a little more about the sweetness of scallops, and about the various fruit-based buerre blancs I've tasted over the years, and decided that both needed to be augmented. Around this point, I had a wonderful conversation with Chef Brian Allen about this very idea, and we agreed that the additions of notes of black pepper and/or pepper in general, vanilla, and white chocolate might help set off the foundational flavors nicely.
Shortly thereafter, I made a little free time while at work, and decided to make a basic orange buerre blanc sauce base (usually the 'base' for a sauce finished with butter is simply the sauce without the butter. this way, it can be stored and reheated to be buttered later without greater risk of the sauce breaking). Many buerre blancs start with shallots sweated in oil or butter, then white wine is added and reduced. Shallots have a bit of a sweet note, so I decided I'd stick with tradition and use them. I followed this step, reduced the wine, then added 100% orange juice and reduced further, then some cream, and reduced further. If I were then to kill the heat, and gently melt a good bit of butter into the sauce, I would have a full buerre blanc. Leaving the butter out for now, I tasted the sauce, and found that the wine flavor was probably too concentrated, and that the orange had lost much of it's sweetness, and gained a bitter note due to cooking at a relatively high temperature.
I clearly had more brainstorming to do. I told Brian about my results, and we discussed ways to reinforce the sweet note, and hopefully also keep the orange flavor from going bitter. We decided that caramelizing the shallots first, and leaving the orange juice out of the reduction might help. I tried caramelized shallots, and reduced wine with them. Before proceeding further, I tasted this reduction, and the result was a somewhat muddy flavor, a little rich, a little sweet, but not quite what I'm looking for. I think this approach won't result in the sauce I have in mind.
We had also discussed adding just a splash of fresh orange juice at the end of the saucemaking process, to keep that fresh, sweet flavor, and also adding some minced orange zest, to add an even more orangy punch to the sauce. I think these are good ideas, especially the zest, but further experimentation is definitely needed.
This brings us to the present state of things. At this point, I'm thinking that I may have the best luck using two sauces, a finely tuned vanilla buerre blanc, and some sort of thickened orange puree or a 'fluid gel'. The thought has also occurred to me that adding a carrot note, in some form, probably to the orange sauce, may set things off nicely, as carrots are also sweet, and have what I like to think of as a 'friendly flavor'.
In my next orange scallop entry, I'll update you on the progress of the sauce, discuss ideas for the pepper note I mentioned, talk about the white chocolate element, and hopefully discuss plating as well! Thanks for reading...
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