Seared Scallops With Hazelnut POM Brown Butter Sauce

POM Brown Butter:

Prepare fresh pomegranate juice, if necessary.* Prepare fresh pomegranate arils, if necessary.** Reserve 3 tablespoons of the arils from fruit and set aside, (refrigerate or freeze remaining arils for another use), over medium-high heat, cook butter until it's completely melted and starts to turn golden brown, remove from heat, in a small pot over medium-low, reduce the pomegranate juice to 1/2 cups until thick and syrupy, add the pomegranate arils, hazelnuts, brown butter and lemon juice, to finish the sauce when the scallops are cooked, add the sliced chives, and salt and pepper to taste, if the sauce is too thick, you can add a touch of water.

Celery Root Puree:

Place the celery root, water and heavy cream in a pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat, when the celery root is tender, remove from the liquid and blend until smooth, if the puree is too hard to blend, use some cooking liquid to help loosen it, the consistency should be like a smooth potato puree, season with salt and pepper and reserve until serving.

Scallops:

Season the scallops with salt and pepper, heat pan over high heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and then quickly sear the scallops, being careful not to overcook, this should take about 1 minute on each side for a perfect medium rare temperature, use a spoon to make a large swoosh across each plate with the celery root puree, place three scallops next to the puree and spoon over the sauce, garnish the plate with the petite watercress and enjoy. Serve this pomegranate recipe.

*To prepare fresh pomegranate juice, cut 2–3 large POM Wonderful Pomegranates in half and juice them with a citrus reamer or juicer. Pour the mixture through a cheesecloth-lined strainer or sieve. Set the juice aside.

**To prepare fresh arils, score 1 large POM Wonderful Pomegranate and place in a bowl of water.  Break open the pomegranate under water to free the arils (seed sacs).  The arils will sink to the bottom of the bowl and the membrane will float to the top. Sieve and put the arils in a separate bowl.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the arils from fruit and set aside.  (Refrigerate or freeze remaining arils for another use.)