Inspired by Empellon Taqueria, an excellent Mexican restaurant we went to on a freezing cold night in New York in February of 2017, this is a vibrant, exciting, astonishingly beautiful dish. Yes, it sounds odd to be combining seafood and chocolate, but in fact the chocolate, unsweetened, and the scallops, sweet and sea-ish, go incredibly well together, giving a luxurious mouthful, alongside the rich, creamy avocado and the superbly corny tacos. Sadly, the taco mix doesn't freeze well.. The cocoa nibs are optional, but their bittersweet flavour works very well with everything else.

The scallops:-

6 large scallops

1 dstspn finely chopped chives

1 hot Mexican chilli, eg De Arbol, finely chopped

Juice of 1 lime

The dressing:-

½ tspn cocoa powder

1 tbspns lime juice

½ tspn sugar

1½ tbspns extra virgin olive oil

The puree:-

1 large ripe avocado

½ tbspn lime juice

1 tspn sugar

½ tspn salt

The tacos (makes 12 tacos- you will need 6 for this recipe):-

120g masa harina

20g plain flour (we’ve done it with Dove’s Free From Gluten Plain White Flour and it works a treat)

½ tspn salt

15mls groundnut or avocado oil

140mls warm water

To serve:-

½ tbspn cocoa nibs

Light salad leaves

Coriander leaves

• Mix together all the taco ingredients till you have a firm dough with a kind of Plasticeney consistency. Knead for 5 minutes, then cover the bowl with a towel and leave for 15 minutes

• Cut each scallop in half, then carefully mix with the chives and lime juice and Mexican chilli. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside

• Blitz the avocado puree ingredients in a blender until very smooth. Set aside

• Whisk the dressing ingredients together. Set aside

• Get a dry frying pan good and hot over a high heat, and toast the cocoa nibs for just 15 seconds; they will start to smell gorgeous. Take off the heat, put into a small bowl, and set aside

• Once the dough has rested for 15 minutes, break off a lump the size of a golf ball, and roll out till it’s about 2 - 3mm thick. Use a pastry cutter about 9 - 10cm in diameter to cut out a circle. Repeat with more dough lumps until you have six circles

• To serve, dry fry the circles of dough, flipping them half way through, till they’re crisping up nicely, and smelling beautifully corny, and put three on each of two plates. Scatter some salad leaves around the tortillas. Divide the avocado mix between the six tortillas, spreading it carefully with the back of a spoon. Then divide the scallop pieces neatly between them, and drizzle with some cocoa dressing. Garnish with coriander leaves and cocoa nibs and serve