With a mouth-watering mix of textures and flavours, this delicate dish from The Brasserie executive chef Lloyd Cremer is certain to impress.

Pan-seared scallops, sweet-corn and vanilla
purée, popcorn and basil salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

20 good-sized Angelakais scallops, roe in, dried with paper towel
2g mild curry powder
2g saffron powder
1g Murray River sea salt
1g white pepper
Oil for pan frying

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100g sweet-corn kernels
50g butter
50ml cream
½ vanilla pods-seeds scrapped
4 spring onions – white only, cut thinly
150ml Noilly Prat (vermouth) or dry white wine

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100ml fish batter or tempura batter (for frying the roes)
25g flour

50g popcorn
15ml oil
1 punnet basil cress
1 bag baby salad leaves or store-bought salad mix
10g fried basil and curry leaves
50ml basil oil
50ml vanilla oil

 Method

Sweet corn puree

Melt the butter in a pan and sauté the spring onions till cooked. Add the Noilly Prat or white wine and reduce until pan is almost dry. Add the sweet corn, cream and butter. Bring to a gentle boil and season to taste – puree and keep warm.

Fish batter/tempura batter

Make the batter and season, then allow to rest for about half an hour. Dip scallop roes in flour and then into batter. Shallow fry at about 160 degrees.

Popcorn salad

Heat oil in pot and cook popcorn as per bag instructions; add butter and salt.

Scallops

 Mix a small amount of mild curry powder, saffron powder, Murray River sea salt and white pepper together and roll the scallops through this.

Heat a non-stick pan and add oil; cook scallops in pan, keeping an eye on their colour. If the pan is too hot, the flavour of the spices will be lost, and the scallops should be a little under done in the middle. Remove once done and place on paper towel.

 Plating

Dress popcorn with basil oil and cress, vanilla oil, baby salad, salt and pepper, fried basil and curry leaves; place on left of the plate. Place five spoonfuls of sweet-corn puree on right of the plate and place the scallops into the purée. Cut the roes on the angel and place on top of scallops. Drizzle a bit of vanilla oil around plate and enjoy.