Hi, how are you doing today? My name is Bradley Manchester. I am the executive chef for Envy Steakhouse which is located inside the Renaissance Hotel at the 3400 Paradise.

Today, what I’m going to be doing for you guys is just something that’s kind of in the mood of what we’re doing right now which is springtime. Everybody knows here in Las Vegas spring and summer kind of coincide together and it’s very hot and things like that. So, what I’m going to do is something a little bit lighter, but something that’s kind of reminds you of the flavors of a spring time.

What we’re going to do, we’re going to do a seared scallop salad and that’s going to be with a vanilla basil vinaigrette and a wild herb salad. So, what we’re going to start with, we’re actually going to start with the vinaigrette okay. And the vinaigrette is actually a very simple vinaigrette. It’s not a vinaigrette like most people are used to. It’s not one of these vinaigrettes that you emulsify with oil at the end and you drizzle the oil into a blender or into a mixing bowl or anything like that. It’s actually a cooked vinaigrette. And what you’re going to get at the end result is something that’s really smooth, silky and binds really well.

So, what we’re going to do, we’re going to start of with rice wine vinegar and granulated sugar. And these are Tahitian vanilla beans where’s the inside of them have already been scraped. We’re going to add those in there and then this is pure vanilla extract. We’re going to let this come up to a boil then drop it down to a syrup. Okay. You want to get this nice and surfy because that’s actually what binds the whole vinaigrette together. So what we’re going to do, we’re going to bring this up. It’s going to come to a boil. We’re going to drop it to a slight simmer and then it just needs to simmer for roughly about two minutes and then that’s when the sugar will totally dissolve and you’ll get that surfy texture that you’re looking for, okay.

And then in the mean time the, way we’re going to finish this is we’re going to let this cooked. We’re going to transfer it to the blender, and then we’re going to add the basil. You always want to add your fresh basil in such as at the very end because you don’t want that to wilt. You don’t want to turn brown and you want that very robust almost liquorish sweet flavor that basil brings to the table, so we’re going to add that at the very end.

So, what we’re going to do, we’re going to let this come up and as that’s coming up we’re going to start heating out pan for our scallops here, okay. These scallops are the same scallops that we use at the restaurant and what they’re called is a U-10 Dry Pack Scallop. Now, what that means is U-10 means under ten of these will make a pound, so as you can see there are pretty large fellows here very large, very flavorful. Dry pack, meaning that they’ve been soaked and no chemicals, no extra water or anything like that. A lot of times some companies will pack them in water, pack them in salt, and things like that. And basically, what that does is that just expanses the shelf life on this. So, with these are going to last you about a week one that’s been packed in the chemical, that on is going to get you about a week and a half, but you want to step with the more fresh product because these are going to caramelize up very nicely and that’s exactly what we want.

You really want to get that fresh black pepper flavor? So, I would definitely recommend you use the fresh pepper. What we want to do, we want to get this pan really nice and hot. I don’t know when you go to restaurant then you eat scallops a lot of times and you notice that they’d come out and they’ve got not that very nice caramelize look to them. They’re almost sweet, almost have a crunchy texture and not only does it add to the flavor, but it also adds to the presentation as well. And to achieve that you’re basically bringing out the natural sweeteners that are inside the scallop. And in order to achieve that, you need a very hot pan for that. As you can see that’s what we’ve got here, so we’re going to add these to the pan. If you have a non-stick pan all the better, if you don’t just make sure that, that pan is really nice and hot.

And just let those be, don’t play with them, don’t turn them, don’t do anything like that because if your scallop or shell fish pan, if you overcook shell fish or sea foods like that, it’s really rubbery, really tough and things like that. Plus to achieve that caramelization, we really just want to let them almost fry in their own juices so we’re going to let those just sit there and cook. Coming back to the vinaigrette, as you can see it has a nice little simmer here that’s exactly what we want.

And it’s been on now for about roughly about two or three minutes and that’s all you need, so what we’re going to do is we’re going to pull that off. We need to let that cool just a little bit for the simple fact of the presentation because once you add that to the blender and then you add the basil to it, I don’t know if you notice but heat will actually wilt basil and turn it brown almost instantly. It’s almost instantly, it’s almost instantaneous so I’ll do it so what we’re going to do, we’re going to let that cool just a little bit.

You actually want to blend it when it’s still kind of warm just for the simple fact that it will add that extra flavor to it because heat is one of these things that especially to basil it’s both good and bad work. The heat is actually going to bring out the flavor, but at the same time if it’s too hot it will wilt a little bit. So, what we’re going to do, we’re going to take out those vanilla basil and just let it stick. We’ve got all the flavors in there that we need, we‘re just going to need to let that stick for just a minute. Coming back over to here, our scallops are starting to caramelize nice. That just going need a few more minutes and these are roughly going to take about two minutes on each side. They’re finished and ready to go. That’s going to leave the scallop at about a medium temperature.

Now, if you want your scallops cooked a little bit more then you need to go about three minutes on each side but other than that I think you will actually like exactly how these are going to be cooked because the whole with these scallops are, you want to make sure that you hold that integrity of the scallop and what that is, is something really buttery, really sweet and just really silky and when you overcook it, everyone knows it’s going to turn to rubber, that’s not what you want especially for this salad.

Alright, so our scallops are getting nice and caramelized here. They’re just starting to get a nice color, we’ll go ahead and turn those all over. What we have here are the pea shoots, a little bit of micro basil, micro spinach, micro arugula, and what’s call a bull’s blood which is actually a beet sprout. I like to use the micros one for presentation and two for the intent flavors that they have. You’re really going to be able to taste the intenseness of all the flavors here. The micros are small great for presentations, but they also add that little bit of crunch and a little bit of bite that you might look for. These are looking good, and I’m cooking this—I started with the pan on high heat just to make sure the pan get really hot, but I dropped the heat down to about a medium heat, so they won’t overcook because you don’t want to burn them. You don’t want to overcook them. You want them to be just perfect.

So, while those are finishing u,p we can go ahead and finish up our vanilla basil vinaigrette. I think you will really like this. And to finish this, simple one, two process. We’re going to add the vinegar into here. Be careful if it’s right over your nose because this is vinegar and this is strong. No matter if it does, have the vanilla and stuff in and it’s still going to give a little bit if you put your nose right over there. And then we’re going to just add the fresh basil leaves. I went ahead and picked these off the stem. You don’t want to get the stem in there. Fresh off the stem, they will actually got this little basil at the end of the flower in there as well because the basil flowers actually are very pungent and spice.

So, what we’re going to do, I would really suggest that you paste it first. And let’s just go ahead and grain that up. Sometimes you will have to give a little stir here. And the end result, you’re going to get a nice, green flavorful vinaigrette, and that’s exactly what we’re looking for and that’s it.

Now, once the product here is finished, you can do one of the two things, (a) you can strain it if you’d like or (b) you can leave it exactly like this. I actually like to leave it just like this. Moving right along, we’re going to add a little bit of apple into this as well. Now, with the apple, you can do one of two things. You can peel it, you can dice it, you can add that in into there if you want, or you can just do, what I’m going to do nice a little pans okay, and this is going to add two our garnish as well. And it’s going to add little bit of texture, little bit of bite to the salad that’s exactly what we’re looking for. Just going to add a few apples into there then we’re going to have just a couple on this side for garnish as well. So, I’m going to put a little bit of the vanilla basil vinaigrette in here. And I will give it a nice toss. A little bit of salt and pepper mixture.

So, what we’re going to do, we’re going to get kind of creative here. We’ll put couple of scallops on each end. I want to put our salad right here on the middle. A couple of apples right on top and just go around with the vinaigrette. And that’s it. You’ve got the seared scallop salad with mixed baby herbs and a vanilla basil vinaigrette and green apples. And that’s it.