Scallops gulai

With Indian influences, a gulai sauce is spicy, sunny coloured and coconutty. It is a hallmark of Padang cuisine but popular across the archipelago, cloaking meat, fish, offal, seafood or vegetables. I once had a particularly good village version with crunchy young bamboo shoots. Here I have chosen seared scallops, which cook in minutes. If you make the sauce in advance (which it is best to do anyway as this will give the complex flavours time to mellow and meld) this makes a very speedy me