Scallops with Bacon and Cauliflower Puree

Scallops are one of my favourite ingredients. I regularly cook them at home for pasta dishes.

This recipe is fairly simple yet delicious and an impressive starter for any of your dinner guests. This combination of scallops, bacon and cauliflower is a match made in heaven and was inspired by a dish I had at Chardon D'Or a couple of years ago.


Ingredients (serves 4):

• For the puree: 1/2  cauliflower, milk, 1/2 onion, few cloves, 2 bay leaves, knob of butter.
• 12 scallops.
• 8 slices of streaky bacon.

I used this recipe from the BBC for the cauliflower puree. The subtle flavour of the cloves works nicely. I need to perfect a smoother puree.


Dry fry the bacon until crispy. Remove any excess oil before serving.


Sear the scallops in a little olive oil. A couple of minutes on each side is enough.


To serve smear a layer of the puree on the plate and delicately place the scallops and bacon on top. I added a little cress. Simple.

How to Make Kick-Ass Chicken Kebabs

I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't cooked much in the last couple of weeks. I was dying to get back to it: I enjoy cooking and it really helps me de-stress.

Thursday was a particularly long and busy day at work. As a reward I elected to cook some quick and easy kick-ass chicken kebabs. And they were very rewarding indeed.

I needed to share this recipe with you: I can't emphasise enough just how good they are.

For the chicken:

• 1 Chicken breast diced into sizeable chunks.
• 1.5 teaspoons of curry powder ( I used some top notch curry powder I bought in an Egyptian souq).
• 0.5 teaspoons of paprika.
• 1 crushed clove of garlic.

No chicken kebab is complete without a hefty garlic sauce - this one packs a punch!

For the garlic sauce:

• 1 clove of garlic.
• 3 cherry tomatos.
• A wedge of red onion.
• Sprinkle of dry chilli flakes.
• Juice of half a lemon.
• A dash of olive oil.
• Salt to taste. 

Mix together the chicken, curry powder, paprika and crushed garlic until the chicken is coated in the spices. I left this mixture in the fridge to marinade for about 30 minutes. 

To make the garlic sauce simply blend the ingredients together. I used the chopper from my Philips Hand Blender to blend this sauce. 

Grill, griddle or BBQ the chicken. I cooked the chicken on my griddle, a few minutes on each side. It's a great BBQ recipe. 

Serve the chicken in a lightly toasted pitta bread with a healthy covering of the garlic sauce. I ate this with a cress, tomato and red onion side salad. Delicious!

For some the punch from the garlic sauce will be too violent. If so, cool the sauce by mixing in a spoon-full of greek yogurt. Easy.  

This made enough kebabs for one but probably enough sauce for a couple.

Enjoy.

PS I can't get enough cress at the moment, every salad I make contains loads of it!