Stupidly simple scallop starter

When it comes to hosting dinner at your house, I'm a firm believer in keeping it simple so you can actually spend most of the time with your guests rather than holed up in the kitchen. That and when you start cooking have a glass of wine or g&t at hand. There is nothing worse than hearing everyone having all the fun while you are slaving away in the kitchen, trust me! Dishes that you can prepare in advance and then just assemble when you're ready will become your trusty friends, especially if they have hardly any components to them. This dish in particular only has two things to cook and one of them you can get ready beforehand. The latter is a rather fancy sounding vegetable puree but really it's super easy to make. The veg in question is celeriac ('the ugly veg') which really is extremely underrated. It goes very well with pork as well as scallops and the truffle oil I used to finish this dish. I'll put some variations at the bottom with the recipe in case truffle oil is too expensive for your budget or you don't like the humble celeriac. Essentially this is something to play around with, is simple but still gives the wow factor. 

Pan fried scallops with celeriac puree and truffle oil. 

Serves 4 

1 small celeriac, peeled and roughly chopped in to cubes

Milk

A dash of cream 

A knob of butter

Salt and pepper

12 large scallops, with or without the roe

Truffle oil

A green herb to garnish such as lemon thyme, chives, parsley or thyme. 

First place your celeriac in a pan and pour over the milk until it's covered. Add some salt and put on a medium heat being careful as the milk will burn quickly. Bring to the boil and then lower the heat. Simmer until very tender. Once cooked, drain off the milk but keep it and pop the celeriac in to a blender. Add a little of the milk and blitz, adding more if you need it. It shouldn't be runny at all (no soup here!) but should be smooth and thick. Add in a tiny bit of cream, butter and adjust the seasoning. Leave in a container until ready to serve. 

Take a large frying pan and get it smoking hot. Add in some oil and a bit of butter then quickly add your scallops. Don't worry about burning them, you want a nice golden brown colour on them to get some extra flavour. After about 2-3 minutes flip them over and give them another 2 minutes. Take off the heat and warm through the puree if it's cooled down completely but if it's still warm go ahead! 

Put a dollop of puree on the plate, feel free to make it fancy if you want, then place the scallops round and drizzle with a little truffle oil. Garnish with the herbs and serve. 

Variations with scallops:

Celeriac and apple - same recipe but add some peeled and sliced apple with the scallops. 

Celeriac/cauliflower with bacon lardons - same but cook some lardons first, take out the pan and then cook the scallops in the bacon fat. 

Curried scallops with califlower - make a califlower puree in the same way as above and dust some curry powder on the scallops before cooking. 

Califlower with chorizo - same as above with the bacon.