Chilled Corn Soup with Mint Chiffonade, Served with a Black Pepper Parmesan Crisp; Minted Pea Puree and Seared Sea Scallop

Adding the juice from one lime really helped to brighten the flavor of the soup. Best served chilled, with a parmesan crisp.

Chilled Corn Soup

- 5 ears of yellow corn
- Several stalks of green onions
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 x 15 oz. can light coconut milk
- 1 lime
- salt/pepper
- light cream

1. Shuck ears of corn. Microwave (which I find helps to bring out the sweetness) on high for ~ 2.333 minutes/ear. So if you have 3 ears in a pot, microwave for 7 minutes total.
   
2. Slice kernels off microwaved corn with knife.
3. In separate pot, add butter, and sautee diced garlic cloves and green onions.
4. Then add corn kernels; cook until tender.
5. Then add coconut milk; bring to a boil, then let simmer 5-10 minutes.
6. Blend in food processor, add water as needed to slightly liquefy.
7. Scrape through a fine mesh strainer/tamis/chinois, in order to get a silky smooth texture.
8. Add juice from 1 lime.
9. Add salt/pepper to taste.
10. Refrigerate; mixture will thicken. Add light cream as needed before serving to achieve desired consistency.
11. Serve with mint chiffonade and parmesan crisp.

Black Pepper Parmesan Crisp

- Grated parmesan-reggiano
- 1/4 Tbsp flour
- pepper

1. Taking several small handfuls of grated parmesan, add flour and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Go easy on the pepper; a little pepper goes a long way here.
2. Form flat mounds on silpat, bake at 375 degrees F for about 10 minutes, or until browned.
3. Let cool on silpat for a few minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.

Mint Pea Puree

- 1 bag frozen English peas
- Mint leaves
- Light cream
- Salt/pepper

1. In a pot of water, add in peas and mint leaves. Bring to a boil, then let simmer 10-15 minutes.
2. Blend in food processor. Add water as needed to achieve a slightly liquid consistency.
3. Scrape through a fine mesh strainer/tamis/chinois, in order to get a silky smooth texture.
4. Add salt/pepper.
5. Add light cream as needed.

Seared Scallop

- Ideally, purchase dry scallops from Whole Foods (which don't have the milky white liquid)
- Olive oil

1. Add olive oil to pan.
2. Salt/pepper scallops (omitting salt/pepper doesn't hurt either; I found the scallops to be perfectly tasty even without the salt/pepper).
3. Let oil get hot enough so that wisps of smoke emanate from the pan.
4. Sear scallops for 2 minutes on the first side, about 1.5 minutes on the second side. My scallops were about an inch thick; don't crowd the pan (avoid steaming), and do not move the scallops while searing.
5. After searing both sides, let rest a few minutes. Middle should ideally be translucent.

Assemble ensemble dish with all parts. I thought the scallop was seared very well.

This picture shows the parmesan crips a little better.