Curry-Orange and Carrot Sea Scallop with Pureed Sunchokes

This is what I served as the third course of a 7 course dinner I hosted for Houston area food-bloggers/critics. It was one of the most liked dishes of the night, and a complete innovation of my own. 

Recipe for the pureed sunchokes:

1 bag of sunchokes (available at the Whole Foods on Kirby)

the juice of 1/2 orange

Heavy whipping cream

dash of salt, pepper, and cumin

Peel the sunchokes and cut into equal size pieces. Boil sunchokes until the are soft (like you would a potato). Drain the water and mash the sunchokes. Pour in the orange juice and enough cream so that it has a creamy consistency. Mix in the pepper and cumin to taste. 

Recipe for the Orange/Carrot/Cumin Puree:

 1 carrot peeled, chopped in 1/2 inch slices

chili powder

cayenne pepper

cumin

cream

Boil the carrots until soft. Mash up and mix in a little cream, but not too much. Add salt and spices to your own taste. I think a little spice in this is good. 

Creamy Curry Sauce Recipe:

Heavy Whipping Cream

garam masala

curry powder

salt and pepper

Here is a little trick I used to not over or under salt my sauces. I mix it all up and taste cold, before I start heating it. I do this because everytime I want to taste for salt and it is cooking, I burn my mouth :) For this sauce don't add too much curry or garam masala, because I think it takes away from the flavor of the sunchokes. But really all you have to do is cook it on medium until it thickens a bit. 

Fried Carrots Recipe:

Using a peeler, peel long sliced of carrot. Fry until crispy like you would a potato chip! Easy...

Prep:

Pan fry scallop until cooked. Ladle out some mashed sunchoke, add a dollop of the mashed carrot, top with scallop, pour a tablespoon of the curry cream on top and around side, add the carrot chips (dust with a little cumin--optional). Ta-duh!