Akaiito Robata Scallops - Chef Recipe by Winston Zhang

Ingredients

8 Hervey Bay scallops on the half shell (roe removed)
60 g seaweed paste
100 g butter
100 g shio kombu
20mL yuzu juice
20 g chives

Method

Seaweed butter:

Beat butter and seaweed paste in an electric mixer for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

Spoon butter into a container and set aside.

Shio kombu powder:

Pre-heat oven to 60 C and place shio kombu onto an oven baking tray.

Place in the oven at 60 C for 2 hours, or until the shio kombu has completely dried.

Put the dehydrated shio kombu into a food processor and blend until a powder consistency.

Turn on your barbeque, or char-grill to a high heat.

Spoon a teaspoon of seaweed butter onto the top of each scallop.

Cook scallops on the barbeque until the seaweed butter melts and bubbles.

When the butter begins to bubble, the scallops will be cooked halfway through. Take them off and place onto serving plates.

Lightly drizzle yuzu juice onto each scallop (about 1 teaspoon of juice per scallop). When combining the juice and melted hot butter, it will quickly become a hot emulsion sauce.

Light sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of shio kombu powder on each scallop.

Garnish with freshly chopped chives and enjoy.

Plating:

Present however you want, at Akaiito we place our scallops on a bed of rocks to give the plating inspiration of under the sea.

Notes:

Shio kombu, seaweed paste and yuzu juice are available at most Asian grocery stores in the Japanese section.

Any leftover seaweed butter is always great on toast!

Recipe provided by Akaiito