Pumpkin soup with fried scallops

Ingredients for 5 servings:

• 600 g Hokkaido pumpkin(s)
• 750 ml chicken broth
• 150 g cream
• n. B. curry powder, mild
• 1 garlic clove(s)
• 1 slice(s) ginger root
• some cinnamon stick(s), 1 splinter of it
• ½ vanilla pod(s), including the pulp
• 4 tbsp butter, cold
• Salt
• 5 scallops, ready to cook
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 tsp butter
• e.g. vanilla salt
• n. B. Pepper from the mill

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour

from the show “The Perfect Dinner” on VOX from 24.06.2020

For the soup, peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds with a spoon, and cut the flesh into 1 cm cubes. Place the pumpkin cubes in a saucepan with the broth and simmer until soft, just below boiling point, for about 20 minutes. Add the cream and 1 tablespoon of curry powder, and puree the soup with a hand blender. Peel and halve the garlic. Add to the soup along with the ginger, cinnamon, and vanilla pod, let it steep for a few minutes, and then remove it. Using a hand blender, stir in the butter in small pieces and season the pumpkin soup with salt and curry powder. Wash the scallops and pat dry. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the scallops on each side for about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and let the scallops cook in the residual heat for about 1 minute until translucent. Melt the butter in the pan, drizzle over the scallops, and season with vanilla salt and pepper. Drain on kitchen paper. Ladle the pumpkin soup into warmed soup bowls and place one scallop in each. Carsten prepared this recipe as an appetizer on the show “The Perfect Dinner” – Day 3 in the Nahe region – on Wednesday, June 24, 2020.