Squid ink linguine with seared scallops, sea urchin and salmon roe in cream uni sauce

This is a crazy luxurious dish, containing some of my favorite seafood!! I always love sea urchin on sushi but I have never cooked with it. I bought a box of sea urchin, using half of it to serve on pasta and the other half to make the uni cream sauce.  My sister is also a big fan of sea urchin and scallops so she was really happy that I cooked her this dish.

I was quite upset that the dish wasn't cooked to perfection though coz I forgot to dry the scallop before I pan-seared them. So it didn't get the beautiful caramelization. And for the uni cream sauce, I put a bit too much cream so the uni taste is very subtle. But that fresh sea urchin on top tasted like heaven!!

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 dozen or so large fresh sea scallops

pinch of salt and grounded black pepper

1 box of prepared uni

1 package of squid ink linguine (bought from CitiSuper)

1 cup whipping cream

1 box salmon roe

1 clove garlic, fine chopped

baby spinach for garnish

Directions

1. Put a pot of salted water on to boil. Cook the pasta in the boiling water until al dente.
2. While the pasta is cooking, warm the cream and add the garlic. Simmer gently for about 5 minutes.
3. Take the cream off the heat and add half a box of uni to the cream mixture. Use an immersion blender to blend the uni into the cream until large chucks of uni have dissolved into the dairy mixture. Set aside. Keep warm.
4. Make sure to pat dry the scallops before cooking and sprinkle on some salt and black pepper. In a hot pan with a bit of olive oil, sear the scallops until nicely browned, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove the scallops from the pan, set aside.
5. Once the pasta is done, add it to the uni cream sauce.
6. Plate by scooping up some pasta and arranging it in the center of a plate, and then surrounding the dish with the seared scallops. Arrange the salmon roe and remaining uni on the pasta. Spoon some of the cream sauce around the plate. 
7. Sprinkle on some baby spinach.

Adapted from http://winterjade.com/WordPress/2011/09/16/scallop-uni-and-mentaiko-pasta/