As I hinted in my Austin Food & Wine post, I left Chef David Bull's cooking demonstration impressed, inspired and eager to recreate the dish he prepared in the demonstration: Seared scallop with cocoa nib brittle, coconut cream, jicama salad and chocolate mint. I took notes during the presentation, and did my best to reproduce the dish from memory. I was pleased with the results - I believed that I came close to the dish that Chef Bull had designed. This was confirmed a few days later: Congress tweeted a link to the recipe, and my version was quite close to the real thing, with only a few minor differences.
The most notable difference between my version and Chef Bull's is the color of the brittle. At least the brittle in the linked picture/recipe, which is a very dark brown. I remember the brittle prepared at the presentation being much close to mine in color: a light caramel hue. Also, I got a chance to inspect and try Chef Bull's brittle after the demonstration - I feel like mine came very close to what I saw at the demonstration. Furthermore, the method and ingredients that I used to create my brittle were only marginally different that what is listed in the linked recipe.
So why the color difference then? In part, mine was lighter because I used a spice grinder, which turned my brittle into a fine powder, instead of a crumble. The powder, being aerated, appeared lighter in hue than the brittle itself. However, I don't think that this completely explains the color difference. Even if I produced a similar crumble with my brittle, I don't think it would have been similar in color to the brittle in the linked photo.
Although the recipe doesn't indicate this, I would guess that the brittle crumble in the picture contains a much higher percentage of cocoa nibs than what is listed in the recipe. It seems like that would be the only way to produce such a dark brown color.
The other major difference between my recipe and Chef Bull's was the jicama mint salad. The actual composition and ratio of ingredients in the salad were spot on, however, I noted during the presentation that the jicama batons looked about ½-inch wide/thick. The first time I made the recipe, I used batons this size and found them to be overwhelming. The amount of jicama in the dish was excessive. Instead of being light and refreshing, the large pieces of jicama dominated the scallops.
During his presentation, Chef Bull discussed the thought process behind putting together a perfect plate of food. One of these considerations was making sure that each bite the diner takes is balanced. There needs to be an appropriate amount of each component on the plate. The diner should not finish eating and have a pool of sauce remaining on the plate, or in this case, 6 batons of jicama.
On take two, I julienned the jicama, which resulted in a much more pleasant crunch, and a better overall balance to the dish. The jicama did have a tendency to break apart, however. You can see the difference in the following two photos.
Version 1 - ½-inch thick batons of jicama
Version 2 - julienned jicama.
The jicama shown in the Chef Bull's version appears to be slightly thicker julienne. This is probably the ideal thickness, allowing the jicama to retain its structural integrity, without being too thick so it dominates the scallops.
The rest of the dish nearly mirrored Chef Bull's recipe. The scallop, after a short brine, was perfectly seared and sliced into 3 pieces. The lime vinaigrette was just a simple blend of lime juice and canola oil. And the coconut crema was heavy cream and Coco Lopez brand coconut cream mixed in a 2:1 ratio, and whipped until soft peaks formed.
Altogether, the dish was a success. Hopefully, I can make it to Congress before Chef Bull takes it off the tasting menu, so I can try the real thing.
Hit up Facebook for the rest of the photos.
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