Seared Scallops & Creamy Mash

Ingredients

• 400 g potato, peeled and quartered
• black pepper
• 75 ml milk
• 2 butters
• 60 g bacon, cut into lardons
• olive
• sage
• 6 fresh scallopses, cleaned and trimmed
• 1 lemon, juiced
• Crusty sourdough bread, to serve
• Dressed green salad, to serve
• Fresh parsley, to serve

Method

1. Put the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water and salt it generously — this is your only chance to season the potatoes from the inside. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a steady simmer for 15–20 minutes, until a knife slides through with no resistance.
2. While the potatoes cook, pat the scallops bone dry on kitchen paper and score a shallow criss-cross about 1 cm deep into one flat side of each. Season with salt and leave them on fresh paper, uncovered. Wet scallops steam; dry scallops sear — this is the whole game.
3. Drain the potatoes and let them steam dry in the colander for a full minute — drier potato, fluffier mash. Tip them back into the warm pan with the milk, butter, a good pinch of salt and a generous grind of black pepper. Mash until smooth and glossy, taste, adjust the salt now, then cover and keep warm.
4. Set a heavy stainless or cast-iron frying pan over medium heat with a drizzle of olive oil. Add the bacon lardons and fry for about 2 minutes, stirring once or twice, until they're golden at the edges and the fat has rendered out. Don't crowd them — if your pan is small, do it in two batches, otherwise the lardons will sweat instead of crisp.
5. Push the bacon to one side and drop the sage leaves into the bare, bacon-fat space. They'll crackle for about a minute, darken slightly and turn translucent — that's crisp. Lift them across to join the bacon.
6. Turn the heat up to medium-high and drop the knob of butter into the cleared side of the pan. The moment it foams, lay the scallops in scored-side down and don't touch them. One minute, undisturbed, until the underside is deep mahogany and a proper crust has built on the pan. Flip, cook another minute — they should feel just firm with a little bounce, like the pad of your thumb.
7. Lift the scallops onto a warm plate. Squeeze the lemon juice straight into the hot pan, swirl it through the butter and bacon fond for 10 seconds until it goes glossy and golden — that's your sauce. Taste it; the bacon brings the salt, but a final pinch ties it together.
8. Swoosh the mash across four warm plates, lay the scallops on top scored-side up, scatter over the bacon and crisp sage, spoon the lemon-butter pan juices across the lot and finish with a scatter of fresh parsley.