Queen Scallop & Chorizo Fire-Starter!

A fun and quick dish which will blow your dinner party guests away. Cheeky and spicy way of serving scallops.

• 8 Queen Scallops
• 16 chunky slices of medium or spicy chorizo (cut your own!)
• 1 Lemon
• Curly Leaf Parsley
• Tabasco!

Parsley - take curly leaf parsley, finely chop and place on a plate in a hot oven to dry the herb. Once dry, remove and allow to cool. (Shouldn't take more than 10 - 15 mins, you can do your other prep in this time).

Scallops - you can buy them already cleaned and done but I always prefer getting them fresh and using one half of the shell to serves this dish in - looks fantastic!
Clean and de-roe as required. If you're not sure how to do it try here: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-buy-clean-and-cook-scal-91521

Once cleaned, carefully halve the scallop across the middle so that you have 2 nice shaped discs. Put in a bowl and squeeze the juice of half a lemon over them, make sure they are coated but not swimming. Top tip - you've already started cooking as the lemon juice "cooks" the scallop whilst cold.

Now chop the chorizo into suitably sized thick (approx. 5mm) slices and put into a hot pan. Fry on each side to draw out some of the oil, but don't burn. Once cooked, remove and place to one side in a bowl, keep the chorizo oil in the pan.

Time to be brave!! With the pan still reasonably hot, pour in the scallops with the lemon juice, make sure they are all lying one face down, cook for approx. 45 SECONDS, then flip and cook for the same amount on the other side - yes, I did say SECONDS! Add the juice of the remaining half of the lemon into the pan.

Judging when they are cooked is the difficult bit - so many people over cook scallops, they need to be just done! Then add the chorizo back in to warm through and now give the whole pan a big shot of Tabasco, according to taste.

Remove, serve 4 halves of scallop and 4 slices of chorizo in each scallop shell, spoon some of the jus from the pan over the top, place the scallop shell on a plate and sprinkle the dried parsley over the top to dress. Serve immediately!

Hey presto - you can play with this, experiment and try with and without the tabasco as well as the strength of the chorizo according to your taste. When mastered, you'll be able to cook and serve this from start to finish inside of 10 mins - cook it in front of your guests for that wow factor at a dinner party!