James Martin, My Kitchen: Scallops with black pudding and apple & Caramelised quince and apple tarts

Certain ingredients always seem like a real treat. Scallops is one - they are the sort of thing that is mostly encountered in restaurants and seem that bit too expensive to buy fresh. When I was still living on the south coast I remember my mum and I being the unexpected beneficiaries of glut of scallops. A family friend, who is a boat builder, had been paid for some work he had done for a fisherman with the most enormous sack of fresh scallops still in their shells. As his wife was away and there was no way he could possibly tackle such a feast on his own he gifted us some. I don't remember how we ate them - likely very simply pan fried. I do remember they were delicious.

I also remember his wife not realising when she got home that scallops, unlike mussels, do not need to completely close when tapped to ensure they are safe to eat and sadly thought quite a portion of their share had gone bad. I don't think she will have made that mistake again!

York is not the most multi-cultural place - unlike many other cities in Yorkshire it is overwhelmingly white. However the University has a thriving intake of international students, many of whom are Chinese,  and unsurprisingly local businesses (in the immediate area at least) have taken advantage of their desire for ingredients from home. I pass two Asian supermarkets on my way home from work - one Chinese and one Middle Eastern, where I frequently stock up on noodles, spices, large bunches of fresh herbs and frozen dumplings from them. From the Chinese supermarket I also buy big bags of king prawns and most recently, a large bag of scallops. 

I've bought frozen scallops before from other supermarkets and they tend to be tiny - good enough for a pasta dish but not quite as special as the big, sweet ones you get in restaurants. These, however, are something else. 

My dad came to visit a couple of weekends ago and I said that we would cook dinner rather than going out for a meal. Knowing he is similarly a fan of scallops I decided that this was a good opportunity to try out my Chinese supermarket find. Wanting something relatively simple but still special I turned to James Martin's My Kitchen.  I wasn't sure if I had cooked  from this book before until I came across a recipe for ribs that was splattered with grease and barbeque sauce  - I am not precious about my books (with a couple of exceptions) and a stained page is a sure sign of an enjoyed recipe.

Martin's cooking tends to lean towards the classical side, focusing on fewer good quality ingredients and a lot of butter. This book is set out seasonally and turning to the winter section, lo and behold, there was a recipe for scallops, black pudding and apple. An ideal starter.

Having roped Matthew in to cook us steak for the main course I also decided to make caramelised quince and apple tarts, also from the same book, using the last of the beautiful quinces I bought from the Middle Eastern supermarket (50p a quince! an absolute steal!) but more on those to follow.

The scallop recipe was very straightforward. First you cook down a couple of bramley apples with lemon juice and puree them with a stick blender, then fry off some black pudding - Martin recommends one where you can 'see bits' in it which I can fully get on board with, you need a bit of texture to the pudding. Finally the seasoned scallops are pan fried until golden on one side, turned and then finished off cooking in a large amount of butter.  The plate is then dressed with the apple puree, black pudding and three large scallops a piece and finished with finely chopped parsley. 

Whilst there was nothing revolutionary about this recipe the dish was delicious and we all very rapidly cleaned our plates. The steak that followed was pretty good too - served with sauteed potatoes and salad (but I can claim no credit for that, Matthew does cook a good steak)

And so on to the tarts. These had a crisp puff pastry base - I used shop bought because who on earth has time to make puff pastry? I would've preferred if I could've got the all butter puff but sadly the Sainsburys in Harrogate was unable to provide. From this you cut four 6 or 7 inch discs - amusingly I used a mini bundt tin to do this and the dot in the middle very definitely made each one look like a breast - nipple and all. Whilst these chill the quinces are peeled and cored and cooked down with butter and honey to make a thick compote. This is then spread in the centre of each disc and topped with thinly sliced cox apple. These are then coated in a layer of melted butter and honey and dusted with icing sugar.

I found these took a lot longer to bake than the anticipated 15 minutes but they were well worth the wait. The quinces add a beautiful perfumed quality, elevating them above a normal apple tart and they were delicious served warm with vanilla ice cream  and indeed cold the next day (4 tarts, 3 people - bonus tart for me!).

I'd go back to this book next time I want to cook something seasonal with classic flavour combinations. It is nicely laid out with clear instructions and avoids over complicated lists of ingredients. My god does he use a lot of butter though - I think this whole thing used the best part of a 200g all in, which considering I didn't make the pastry seems quite extreme!