Scampi Ceviche
With lime, quark and clove salt. An elegant entree, delicate, delicious and sure to impress.
Ingredients
- 200 g Scampi meat
- Juice of 1 lime
- 60 ml Lime extra virgin olive oil (or plain)
- Salt flakes (Murray River)
- Freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 Red onion, finely sliced
- 1 tsp castor sugar
- 1 celery heart (the pale-yellow fine stalks and leaves)
- 10 cloves
- 1 Lebanese cucumber
- 4 Cherry tomatoes
- 60 g Quark yoghurt, (or Greek)
- 2 radishes, sliced in rounds
- 1 Green chilli, finely sliced
- 10 g Lumpfish or salmon caviar (optional)
- Mint leaves
Instructions
- Rinse the scampi meat and let drain on paper towel. Then keep ice cold (use a plate sitting on a bowl of ice).
- Whisk the lime juice with the olive oil to emulsify. Season with salt and pepper.
- Sprinkle the onion with salt and sugar, mix and allow to stand to soften.
- Pick the pale leaves from the celery heart and cut the fine stalks on a diagonal slice.
- Grind the cloves finely (use a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder) with a heaped tablespoon of salt flakes to make a fine powder.
- Peel and deseed the cucumber and tomatoes and chop into a small dice. Slice the chill into fine slices.
- Toss the scampi through the lime dressing. Leave to cure for 3-4 minutes.
- Add some radishes in a circle on each plate, then lay out the cured scampi, spaced round the circle. Add small dollops of quark between each scampi, then in the centre make a small stack of the cucumber, tomato, celery, chilli and onion. Scatter some caviar next to each scampi (optional). Season with pepper and the clove salt. Finish with mint and celery leaves, spoon over a little more of the lime dressing and serve.
