Coquilles Saint-Jacques au bouillon de cresson (Alain Ducasse)
(scallops on watercress broth)
Prep time – 25 min
Cooking time – 10 min
Servings – 4
Ingredients:
12 scallops (coquilles Saint-Jacques) without corals
2 bunches of watercress
Some leaves of spinach
1 clove of garlic
Olive oil
1 little tin of caviar
4 slices of nutbread
2 spoons of fresh cream
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt, not much pepper
Preparation:
Defoliate the watercress and remove the stems from the
spinach. Rinse and dry them.
Peel the garlic.
Cut horizontally the scallops in 4. Season them with lemon
juice, a drizzle of olive oil and divide
them into 4 soup plates.
Brush the bread with a little olive oil, toast them slightly
and cut them to fill a small basket.
Boil some salted water.
Dip the watercress, spinach and garlic. Cook until the leaves soften a
little.
Drain this boil. Stir in the cream and add a little of the
cooking water – the liquid shoud have the consistency of a soup. Add salt and
pepper and heat the broth. When boiling, pour this broth over the scallops just
in time to serve the dishes: the heat will cook them.
The chef’s advice:
“Cook the broth at the last moment; if you prepare it while taking care
of the scallops, this broth will darken and keep an unpleasant appearance.”
Rhum Baba (adapted from Alain Ducasse's recipe)
To the babas:
1 whole egg plus 6 yolks
Whisk the egg white well, then add the 7 yolks. Whisk a lot
until almost losing the color.
Sift over the mixer off 2 spoons all-purpose flour mixed
with 1 little pinch of baking powder.
Grease 4 muffin cups with unsalted butter and a little
flour.
Fill the greased muffin cups with the batter and then bake
for 15 to 20 minutes (180 °C), until the dumplings are nicely browned.
Syrup –
1 Kg granulated sugar
2 glasses of water (500ml total)
Zest of an orange and also a lemon - also squeeze some of
the juice from the peels in the syrup.
1 vanilla bean divided in 2
Once thickened, and just before taking from the fire, add
rhum, cognac or Armagnac to taste to the syrup.
If you wish, do not add alcohol in the syrup and and just
serve the babas flambé at the last moment - but always before filling them with
the cream.
Leave the dumplings in the cold syrup for about 15 minutes.
Filling – Make a custard of egg yolks with vanilla – light
and fluffy not to stay too consistent when cool. When cold, whisk slightly with Chantilly. Serve
this cream apart to fill the babas on the table after cut in half on each
plate.
ATTENTION - When it is the case, do not forget to flambé
before putting the cream.
