Scallops with pumpkin and couscous

How to cook scallops sous vide, recipe for scallops with couscous.

I will not beat around the bush: most readers will find this recipe difficult, because new and unusual is always perceived in this way. It can take a long time to explain that it is actually much easier to cook these scallops than dumplings, not to mention minestrone or shepherd's pie, but you wouldn't be convinced. Therefore, I will say it in another way – every minute and every effort that you, daredevils, spend on this recipe will pay off handsomely. At the same time, we will figure out whether it makes sense to cook the pumpkin in sous vide, if it will be turned into mashed potatoes anyway.

• Peel a pumpkin from seeds and skin, then cut the pulp into small cubes, put into a bowl, season with salt and nutmeg and stir well. Pack the pumpkin together with a piece of butter in a vacuum bag and cook in a sous vide at 85 degrees for 1.5 hours, then add honey to the contents of the bag and punch with a blender until completely smooth, adding a little bit of water (optional) for a thinner consistency. Keep it warm.
• I was skeptical about the idea of ​​cooking vegetables with sous vide at first and pumpkin in particular – I mean, they are still supposed to be mashed in puree, but sous vide once again managed to surprise me. First, the pumpkin retains its color – much brighter than if you decide to boil or bake it. Secondly, all the flavors and aromas remain in the package, and you have a real pumpkin bomb with an incredibly rich, concentrated flavor. Of course, if you don't want to tinker with sous vide, you can cook pumpkin in a more traditional way, but in this case, the result will be not that impressive.
• Seal the scallops in a vacuum bag along with a lump of butter and cook in sous vide at 55 degrees for 45 minutes. Then pat dry with paper towels and quickly sauté in butter over high heat, seasoning with salt and black pepper at the end.
• Couscous can be prepared in advance, fortunately, it should not be hot. Pour boiling water over it a centimeter above the level of the couscous, cover and leave for 10 minutes: the cereal will cook without boiling. After letting the couscous cool slightly, add the onion and cucumber, fried in a dry pan and finely chopped pumpkin seeds, season with oil and lemon juice or vinegar, season with salt and stir well. It is better to add seeds to couscous just before serving, so that they do not have time to get wet and save its crunch.
• When you're ready to serve the scallops, sprinkle the leek ashes (I wrote about how to make it in the beetroot tartare recipe), top out the freshly fried scallops, some pumpkin puree, and couscous salad on the edges of the warmed plate. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve immediately.

Scrolling through recipes on the Internet, you can see that usually scallops are advised to cook at a lower temperature, but I found that for our Murmansk scallops, which are smaller and denser, it is the temperature and time parameters indicated above that will be optimal.