Quick Eats | Episode 10 "Scallops & Oyster, Mushroom." w/ Derrick Reed.
Episode 9 of Quick Eats. Hot Plates, Fast Clips. Dishes made in 30 mins or less… or something close.
Scallops, Shoyu Oyster, Shiitake Barey Tea, Oyster Crackers, Nori.
-~
-
Influenced by the classic "Oysters & Pearls by Chef Thomas Keller. Was watching restaurant dining videos when a came across a new Justin Khanna video of his most recent trip to TFL. Of course, one of the main opening dishes he was met with, was the iconic Oysters & Pearls, which got me thinking about Chef Keller's original thought process behind the dish, the play on names, texture & relations of refinement & humble classics. With oyster mushrooms already on hand and a forever craving of shucked oysters, I thought of combing these two.
The mild, & yet earthy mushrooms to play with the salinity from oysters, that are not quite from the land, but the sea. I'd add scallops for a sweeter note from the sea, & a lighter soup because it's winter in LA, & why not keep the oceanic feel of the dish going.
I thought about the textures & characteristics of my favorite chowders from home, & how I'd grow up eating chowder w/ nearly more crackers to soup in ratio, as I loaded them into the soup, to soak, maintaining a crunch, but surely picking up the flavors that it was paired with.
And there, comes the oyster cracker. Now that the core of the dish was born, I'd add elements to introduce bitter while still playing on the sea to land aspect of many of my dishes.
-~
-
For the soup base, I toasted barely in a dry pan until fragrant with visible browning. The Barley is removed and placed into a container w/ dried ginger where hot water is poured and allowed to steep. it's cooled to room temp, the barley is discarded & dried shiitakes & bay leaf are added inside the tea to steep overnight. The next day, the tea is thickened w/ potato starch for body.
-
For the oysters, I prepared a tare by reducing, sake, sugar, shoyu, dashi & any oyster liquor accumulated from shucked oysters until syrupy consistency. it's seasoned w/ ponzu and cooled to room temp, ultimately being used as an overnight oyster brine.
-
Scallops were lightly seared then allowed to "poach" in the soup. Here, i'd rather have bay scallops but none at the market so we took a nice halving approach.
-
Daikon was cooked to 84C in dashi for 45 minutes then warmed to order.
-
Oyster Crackers are made traditionally w/ a swap of water for oyster liquor.
-~
-
Song: Ketsas - Future Forward
Directed: @derricksworldd
Videography: @derricksworldd
-~
SOCIALS: Derricksworldd.com
Instagram.com/derricskworldd