Salt-Crusted Sea Scallops

For the Compressed Spinach:

Place leaves as flat as possible in a sous vide bag along with oil, salt, and pepper.

Seal and allow pressure to compress the spinach leaves for about an hour at room temperature. They will have an appearance of being cooked. Keep in the pouch until ready to wrap scallops.

For the Garlic Confit Marinade:

Tightly wrap garlic bulb in aluminum foil with olive oil and salt. Place in an oven at 350°F (176.6°C) for 45 minutes and set aside to cool. 

Once cooled, gently peel and remove 4 garlic cloves. Combine cloves with the white wine and truffle oil and set aside for scallops.

For the Salt-Crusted Scallops:

Marinate scallops in sealed sous vide pouch with the garlic confit marinade for 2 hours.
Cook marinated scallops at 126.6°F (52°C) for 10 minutes. After cooking, transfer to an ice-water bath.

Mix salt, egg whites, and 1 cup of flour together until it has a consistency similar to dough. On a work surface sprinkled with about a ½ cup of flour, cover salt dough with plastic wrap and use a rolling pin to roll mixture flat until ¼ inch thick.

Cut out two large 2-inch circles and one long 1- by 6-inch rectangle for each scallop. The sizes may vary depending on the scallops, but should be able to encompass the entire scallop.

Remove scallops from the sous vide pouch, wrap with two spinach leaves each, then wrap the scallops with the circular egg-salt cutouts. One circular cutout each should go on the top and bottom of the scallop, with the rectangular cutout wrapping around the sides (imagine a tin can).

Brush evenly with egg wash. Place scallops on a baking tray and cook in oven for 7 minutes at 450°F (232.2°C) or until crusts turn light brown.

For the Sauce:

In a small saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat and sauté shallots until translucent.

Add vermouth to deglaze and reduce to 4 tablespoons of liquid, for up to 10 minutes.

Add heavy cream, salt, and pepper and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes on low-medium heat. Season to taste.

To Serve:

Once done, place scallops in center of plate, open or remove salt crust (crust is not edible) and drizzle sauce around the plate.

Garnish with microgreens if desired.

For more recipes like this, visit Sous Vide Magazine.