- Cut the finger lime in half and squeeze out the lime “caviar”.
- Trim the woody ends of the asparagus then slice on the diagonal into 1cm pieces.
- Place the scallops in a bowl with 2 tbsp olive oil, the lemon zest and a pinch of salt flakes.
- Heat a small frying pan over a medium flame and add 1 tsp olive oil. Sauté the asparagus pieces for 1-2 minutes or until tender, then remove from pan.
- Return the frying pan to the heat and add the butter. When it is gently foaming, add the scallops.
- Because of variations in scallop thickness, pan temperatures and so on, it’s not easy to pinpoint an exact cooking time. So, after 1-2 minutes, peek underneath. If you see the scallops have a nice, caramel-coloured crust on the underside, they’re ready to flip. Overcooking your scallops is one of the easiest things in the world to do, so once you’ve flipped them, it’s time to be careful. Again, it’s impossible to set an exact time, but you want to brown the other side without overcooking the whole thing. It should take approximately 1 minute. It’s better to have the bottoms a lighter brown than to cook them too long. For presentation, the nicely seared sides will go face up on the plate.
- Drizzle the asparagus with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper then divide evenly between 4 small plates or scallop shells.
- Place three scallops on each plate or shell then top with finger lime ‘caviar’.
Citrus Scallop & Asparagus Appetisers
Recipe by Jo Feehan- Second Helping
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 12 local scallops (from Claringbolds)
- 4 spears asparagus
- 1 finger lime
- Zest of ½ ‘backyard’ lemon
- Good quality extra virgin olive oil. (I used Cockatoo Grove 2017 First Release Organic from Ripe)
- 1 tblsp butter
- Salt flakes
- Fresh ground black pepper
