Fried scallops with malt vinegar & jalapeño tartare

This is the ultimate fried seafood. If you're up for deep-frying at home this is pretty easy to do, and much simpler than frying a piece of fish for fish and chips.
Serves 2

Ingredients

6 tablespoons cornflour
6 tablespoons plain flour
ice-cold sparkling water
1 quantity jalapeño tartare (see page 130)
malt vinegar
vegetable oil for deep-frying
12 scallops without coral, each cut in half horizontally
lemon wedges to serve
sea salt

Method

First make your batter by mixing the flours and adding enough sparkling water to make a double cream consistency.

Blitz the tartare sauce so that is smooth (this makes dipping easy, but leave it chunky if you prefer). Season with plenty of malt vinegar – you want the sauce sharp to cut through the batter. 

Heat your oil to 170°C. (If you don’t have a thermometer or deep-fat fryer, heat the oil in a deep pan – it is hot enough to fry the scallops when a small piece of bread dropped in quickly fizzles and crisps.) Dip the discs of scallop in the batter and fry a few at a time for 3–4 minutes or until crisp. Don’t put too many scallops into the pan or the oil temperature will fall and your scallops will be soggy. Drain on kitchen paper. When all the scallops are cooked sprinkle with a little sea salt and serve with the sauce for dipping and lemon wedges for squeezing.