This was a really fun dish, both to cook and plate.  I’ve always enjoyed cooking scallops; there’s another post that describes the process in detail here.

It was also great to utilize cauliflower, which seems to be an often overlooked or under-appreciated vegetable that was interesting to showcase here.  Cauliflower has such a subtle, earthy flavor that adding just a little cream, onion and seasoning can turn it into something truly unique and decadent.

Most of the flavors on this dish are rich and muted but the occasional bite of smoky bacon or spicy and aromatic chipotle delivers a shock and keeps the dish interesting and novel until the very end.

It was a fun dish to plate because the cauliflower puree provides such a clean canvas to work on.  The rust-colored chipotle powder dissolves into the stark white of the puree, creating a nice effect.  The purple and crimson  micro amaranth and swiss chard, which was provided by Lucky Leaf Gardens, looked phenomenal against the white background.