Polo Dobkin Cooks Seafood with a Spanish Accent

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[All photos by Nick Solares]

"The dish was inspired by childhood trips to Spain" says chef Polo Dobkin when asked about the plancha marina at Meadowsweet. The chef has fond memories of San Lucar de Barameda and of the "simply prepared, impeccably fresh seafood" he ate there. Dobkin's homage is a dish that has a rotating cast of seafood, currently featured are scallop, seppiolini, and head on shrimp. He sears the seafood in pans (technically not a plancha as the name of the dish implies, but the effect is the same) and serves it simply with a piperada and aioli.

The chef also makes a shrimp stock that he reduces down and drizzles on when the dish is complete. Because of the separate cooking times of the seafood components, Dobkin cooks the scallop separately and brings it to temperature in the oven.

Watch Dobkin assemble the dish:

Grid View

• The ingredients: (top row l-r) Egg yolk, extra virgin olive oil, peppers (red, habanero and poblano), shrimp shells, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns.
  (middle row l-r) Lemon juice, garlic paste, sherry vinegar, tomato, garlic, more tomato, shallots, dry
• Dobkin sears off the shrimp shells before adding the aromatics: shallots, fennel, celery, and garlic.
• Deglazing with white wine.
• Tomato paste.
• Water is added to the pot. The stock will simmer for 25 minutes and then steep for another 25 minutes.
• Dobkin grills peppers for the piperada.
• Peeling the peppers for the piperada.
• The peppers are mixed with tomato, garlic, olive oil, and sherry vinegar to make the piperada.
• To make the aioli Dobkin combines egg yolk, lemon juice, garlic paste, and a blend of canola and extra virgin olive oil.
• The seafood is seasoned with salt and pepper.
• The scallop is seared in the pan.
• And finished in the oven.
• Aioli.
• Piperada.

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