
Kalle Bergman is a food writer and media entrepreneur who…
An elegant recipe, well suited as a fancy appetizer at your next dinner party. Scallops with sunchoke and capers is a match made in heaven.
What happens when you pair three of your all time favorite ingredients? Well. Good things hopefully. Especially when the flavors of the three ingredients blend as well as these three personal favorites of mine. Scallops, sunchokes and capers.
Halleluja!
The subtle ocean flavor and crispiness of the pan seared scallop. The deep earhthiness of the sunchoke purée. And the butter infused tartness of the capers sauce. It’s super easy, super elegant- and super good.
- 4 Large scallops, cleaned
- Salt & Pepper
- 2 Tablespoons of organic butter
- 1 Tablespoon of fine capers
- 1 Teaspoon of lemon juice
- Vegetable oil for frying
- Dill for garnishing
- Purée
- ½ Ib (250g) of sunchokes
- 1 Tablespoon of butter
- ⅓ Cup (0,8dl) of heavy cream
- A pinch of sugar
- Salt & white pepper
- Peel the sunchokes and immediately place in boiling water. Simmer until very soft, for about 12 minutes. Remove the sunchokes from the water, and blend them until completely smooth. Return to the stove, and add the heavy cream. Re-heat and whisk in butter for extra creaminess. Add a small pinch of sugar and simmer for 2 minutes. Season with salt and white pepper.
- Pad dry the scallops and season with salt and pepper. Fry them in a very hot skillet with just a little bit of vegetable oil for about 1 minute on each side. Remove the scallops, turn down the heat to medium and melt butter in the pan. Add the capers (adjust the amount of capers to your personal taste - I love them, so I use quite a lot) and lemon juice and let it cook for one minute.
- Serve the scallop on top of the puree in the middle of the plate. Drizzle the butter and capers sauce around it. Garnish with a pinch of dill.

Kalle Bergman is a food writer and media entrepreneur who is the founder of Honest Cooking. As a food writer, his writing has been regularly featured in publications like Gourmet, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post and Serious Eats. He is obsessed with simple food, more often than not from his native Scandinavia.
I was looking for a unique food recipe to try and never thought to find actually something orginial and good tasting so fast. Cooked this yesterday and I must say it was quite good.
Anyways thanks for that. :)
Yum, I’ll be making this next weekend for dinner guests!
Great article. Waiting for more.
Have made this several times – terrific. Any wine pairing suggestions?
Glad to hear that Walter. You can go two ways here – either you could do something like a crispy Gruner Veltliner or a dry Riesling, which breaks the fatty earthiness of the dish. Or, an oaky Chardonnay that really boosts the deep flavors of the sunchoke and scallop instead.