Scampi Beetroot and Bagna Cauda
A gourmet recipe from chef Elide Mollo of the Michelin-starred restaurant Il Centro di Priocca: a recipe that showcases the sweetness of the crustacean with a typical element of the Piedmontese culinary tradition, the bagna cauda.
Ingredients
- 1 nr Black lemon
Bagna cauda
- 8/10 Garlic cloves
- 300 gr Seed oil
Bagna cauda foam
- 45 gr Egg white 35 g yolks
Shrimp head sauce
- 10 nr Shrimp heads
- 100 gr Celery
- 100 gr Fennel
- 100 gr Carrot
- 250 gr Onion
- 100 gr Veal meat
- qb Black pepper grains
- 100 gr Celeriac
- 50 gr Olive oil
- 2 spoons Garlic cloves
- qb Thyme
Rice sheet
- 100 gr Rice
- 500 gr Water
- 10 gr Kombu seaweed
Instructions
Beet circles
- Cook the beets under a salt crust at 180° for 45 minutes.
- Then slice the beet with a mandoline to about 0.2 mm thickness and cut into circles (using a round cutter with a diameter of about 1.5 cm).
Bagna cauda
- Cook the garlic in seed oil at low temperature.
- When cooked, remove, and mash with a fork.
- Then put the garlic in a pan with olive oil, add anchovies (about 8 fillets), and heat to 50°C.
Bagna cauda foam
- Blend everything, vacuum cook at 70° for 45 min in a water bath; once cooked, blend again.
- Blend 250 g of well-mixed bagna cauda.
- Weigh 80 g of previously prepared egg whites and yolks and add to the bagna cauda.
- Emulsify everything.
- Insert into a 1-liter siphon using a cartridge.
- Before use, warm in a water bath at 45°C.
Black lemon
- Marinate and dry.
- Then blend until powdered.
Shrimp head sauce
- Sauté olive oil and garlic in a pan; once golden, remove garlic.
- Sauté the shrimp heads and remove.
- Add onion, carrot, celery, fennel, and celeriac in order, each step taking about 7-8 minutes.
- Add the meat, cover with water and thyme, and cook slowly for about 2 hours.
- Strain and reduce until a good consistency is achieved.
Rice sheet
- Cook for about 45 minutes.
- Drain the rice.
- Remove the kombu and blend. Spread between two sheets of parchment paper, 1 mm thick.
- Dry in the oven at 40°C until dehydrated.
- Deep-fry at 190°C in seed oil.
Baby onion
- Onion at 140°C for 8 min, peel, cut in half, and select the nicest, most intact inner parts.
Plating
- Place the scampi on a tray, season with oil and salt, and lightly gratinate the top.
- Place on a plate and cover with beetroot circles. Lightly season with oil and salt.
- After warming the siphon, finish the dish by placing a dollop of bagna cauda foam beside the scampi.
- Serve with the crunchy side (rice sheet), on which place 1 or 2 internal parts of the onion filled with the sauce made from shrimp heads.
- Finally, serve with apple juice to cleanse the palate after the dish.
