2020 Ossian Quintaluna & Maine Scallops with English Pea Soubise

With Chef Jim Stein of The Good Table and Douro (forthcoming)

 
 

We first tasted the beautiful 2020 Ossian “Quintaluna” Verdejo from Segovia while on our Fall 2022 Small Group Trip to Spain while having an incredible progression of wine and food pairings at Pago de Carraovejas in Ribera del Duero. Open return home, and with the help of the winery, we tracked down the importer. We were fortunate to learn that they had a relationship with Sopo wine distributors here in Maine and voliá… now it’s in our wine club member’s homes, accompanied by our tasting notes, and available in this month’s Explorer Whites 6-bottle set.

We love hunting down great wines and suggesting great food pairings that our community can find in their own front yard. Food pairings that support other local businesses, chefs, specialty purveyors, fishermen, growers, and harvesters here in Maine.

To pair with the Quintaluna, we reached out to Chef Jim Stein, the new Chef de Cuisine at The Good Table, to garner his recipe for his exquisite dish of Maine Scallops with English Pea Soubise and Vegetable Hash for our wine club members to make at home to enjoy with this wine. It was an amazing experience to join Stein in the kitchen to make this beautiful dish. While there are several different components to make before easily putting it all together, the steps are straightforward and easy. And worth the effort.

The pairing is spectacular! The wine’s notes of tangerine, lemon zest, golden currant, fresh herbs, vivid minerality, medium body, and refreshing acidity pair so beautifully with the just-out-of-the-ocean scallops, fresh farmer’s market vegetables, and homemade herbaceous oil.

The pairing of this dish with this beautiful 100% Verdejo made from an average age of 150-year-old vines is spectacular! The wine’s notes of fresh tangerine, lemon zest, golden currant, fresh herbs, and vivid saline minerality shine with this dish. And its medium body and refreshing acidity pair so beautifully with the just-out-of-the-ocean Maine scallops, fresh farmer’s market vegetables, and homemade herbaceous oil. 🥂🍽️

RECIPE

The Good Table’s Maine Scallops with English Pea Soubise

 

Serves

2 - 3

Prep Time

30

Cook Time

45

 
 

Equipment:

  • Vitamix or food processor

  • Small and medium saucepan (for sauteing and blanching vegetables)

  • Cast Iron pan

  • Medium frying pan

  • Mixing bowls

  • Chef’s knife

  • Thermometer

 

Ingredients FOR SCALLOPS:

  • 9-12 Large Maine Sea Scallops (Chef Stein highly recommends Maine’s Rocky Bottom Fisheries)

  • Pea tendrils, rinsed

  • Radishes, thinly sliced coins

  • Lemon, peeled and chopped into 1-inch segments. Save the juice!

  • EVOO

  • Butter

Ingredients FOR Pea Soubise:

  • 2 onions, thinly sliced

  • 2 Tbsp unsalted butter

  • 2 Cups heavy cream

  • 2 Cups Parsley, de-stemmed and chopped

  • 2 Cups English peas, shucked

  • Salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients FOR Spring Hash

  • 1 Cup English Peas, shucked

  • 1 Cup Asparagus, cut in 1-inch segments

  • 1 Cup, peeled, boiled and diced potato

Ingredients FOR Chive Oil

  • 2 Cups Chives, chopped roughly

  • 2 Cups neutral oil (Canola, Grapeseed, Vegetable)

Instructions:

Do ahead: Peel and boil potatoes ahead of time and keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for moments like this when you need cooked potatoes. Also, this Chive Oil will keep just about indefinitely since you have cooked all of the moisture out of it. You can do that ahead of time.

Pea Soubis:

  • Cut onions in half and peel, then slice thinly using a sharp chef’s knife or a mandolin.

  • Using a medium saucepan, melt butter on medium heat, add onions, season with salt, and cook until translucent and soft (not caramelized), about 15 minutes.

  • While the onions cook, shuck peas by snapping the end and opening the pod lengthwise, letting the peas fall out into a bowl. The best results will be with fresh peas from your local Farmers Market, but frozen, organic peas are also fine.

  • Blanch the peas by boiling them for 2-3 minutes (longer if frozen) until they are fully cooked (bright green and sweet). Then, remove them and immediately plunge them into a bath of ice water. Chef Stein recommends using a colander like this one, which is perfect for dunking the peas (or pasta, vegetables, anything you boil!) and straining easily.

  • Add the heavy cream to fully cooked, translucent onions. Increase temperature to simmer for 5-10 minutes until the cream reduces slightly.

  • Add parsley and stir on low heat for 2-3 minutes.

  • Transfer the warm mixture + blanched peas into the food processor. Add salt and a pinch of pepper to taste.

  • Starting at low speed for 2 minutes, puree until the cream becomes a vibrant green. Then, pass it through a fine sieve strainer to remove large chunks for a velvety texture (optional). Taste and add salt if needed.

  • Set aside in a warm place (you can keep your oven on low or warm temp)

HERB OIL:

  • Create a superfine strainer using a rubber band to attach a coffee filter to a pint glass; you will need two of these contraptions! See photos for reference.

  • Add oil and roughly chopped chives to a food processor or Vitamix. Mix on high until completely liquified.

  • Add to a small saucepan over high heat and boil until 220 degrees. At this point, the chives and the oil will start to separate. While heating, consistently stir so that the mixture doesn’t burn at the bottom of the pan.

  • Once it’s cooked at 220* for at least a minute, pour the mixture through your coffee filter to strain out the raw chives, and you will be left with a vibrantly green oil. Set aside

Scallops:

  • To clean, remove the abductor muscle from the rest of the scallop (see photo for reference). Dry out the scallops by placing them on a napkin and patting the tops dry.

  • Heat a well-seasoned cast-iron pan with a small amount of neutral oil. When very hot, press scallops into the pan to sear.

  • Cook for about one minute, then add 1 Tbsp of butter to the pan. Carefully tilt the pan slightly and spoon butter over the scallops to baste them for another minute or a minute and a half.

  • Flip and let cook for no more than a minute on the other side for tender, medium-rare scallops

  • Remove quickly from the pan and place on a cooling rack (if you have one) or just a plate

Spring hash:

  • Peel potatoes and dice, blanche them the same way you blanched the peas – for 3-4 minutes

  • Sauté Asparagus, diced potatoes, raw peas, and 1 tsp of butter on medium-high heat. They will cook fast because you’ve already blanched the potatoes: 3-5 minutes.

  • Top with flaky sea salt

putting everything together:

  • Mix pea shoots, lemon segments, and 1 tsp of the juice, radishes, a pinch of salt, and EVOO in a little dish for the salad garnish

  • If the soubise is not kept warm in the oven, warm the soubise on the stove (optional). Spread a generous amount of soubise on each plate.

  • Lay 3-4 scallops on top for each plate

  • Cover with a handful of the spring hash

  • Drizzle herb oil

  • Finish with the salad and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt

Chef Jim Stein is the Chef de Cuisine at The Good Table in Cape Elizabeth and soon-to-be Executive Chef of the forthcoming Douro restaurant in Portland. Duoro was recently featured on ROBB REPORT as one of “The 18 Most Hotly Anticipated Restaurant Openings in America This Year.”

This local recipe is brought to you by Falmouth Country Club.

 
Wine Wise