Serves 4
Pickling liquid
Combine all ingredients in a heavy based saucepan and bring to the boil. Reserve. Clean scallop meat (retain the roe if preferred). Drain between clean kitchen towels. Reserve.
Pickled emu apples
Cover the Emu apples with warm pickling liquid, steep overnight.
Blackened sunchoke purée
Wash, dry and place half of the sunchokes on a baking tray. Bake at 180°C until the outer skin is quite dark. The flesh inside will be very soft and the skin will be quite crispy, almost burnt. This gives a sweeter flesh and a nice bitterness to the skin. Place the whole blackened sunchokes in a blender and purée while slowly adding only enough diced butter until it forms a desired consistency. Add a dash of pouring cream. Season to taste.
Poached pear purée
Place sugar and water in a saucepan. Heat until all sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and cool. Place 4 cups of the sugar syrup in a pot with the cinnamon, star anise and cloves. Bring to the boil, over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add pears. Cook partially covered, turning occasionally for 18-20min or until pears are just tender. Allow to cool in the syrup then purée the pears in blender until smooth. Place the puréed pears into a small piping bag for plating. Retain any unused syrup in the refrigerator for other purposes.
Black garlic salt
Lay garlic on a tray and dehydrate until hard. Place in food processor and blend. Lay on to the tray and dehydrate until dry again. Blend to a sand texture. Add Murray River salt, to taste. To keep dry, store in an airtight container with Silica Gel desiccant packs.
Sunchoke flesh and crisps
Heat a deep fryer to 150°C. Place 4 sunchokes into a pot of cold water and bring to the boil. Turn down to low temperature, and allow to simmer until the flesh is tender when tested with a small knife. Drain and allow to cool enough to handle. Slice the sunchokes in half lengthways, and gently pinch the edges of the skin to loosen then remove in one piece. Reserve these halved flesh pieces for caramelising prior to plating. Fry the skins at 150°C until the oil stops bubbling and the desired colour has been reached. Drain on paper towel then lay out on a tray for dehydrating at 65°C until dry and crunchy.
Cooking
Warm the sunchoke purée. Heat pan and add a small amount of cooking oil. Place the sunchoke flesh pieces in the pan and gently move around to caramelise. Set aside in a warm place. Wipe out
pan and return to medium-high heat. Season scallops with oil and salt flakes, then place in the pan, pressing down gently. Cook for 1½-2min each side, depending on the size of your scallops.
To serve
Place blackened sunchoke purée onto the plate then position two scallops per serve onto the purée. Place the sunchoke flesh pieces then garnish with black garlic salt, sunchoke crisps and
3 drained, pickled muntries per plate. Pipe dots of poached pear purée randomly on plates. Lightly shave fresh truffle over the scallops.
