SCALLOPS are the best

Hello everyone,

I know it's all doom and gloom at the moment, things are just so strange right now, however that should not take away from our love of food and cooking right !

Ever since I was introduced to these beauty's, it has always always been an absolute pleasure to cook them.

The first time I cooked these in a professional kitchen, it was a traditional recipe - Coqilles St Jaques, essentially baked in the shell, surrounded by a really sumptuous creamy mornay sauce, topped with breadcrumbs, then gratinated - just delicious.

However, it wasn't until I worked at Le Manoir -2 star Michelin legendary place of all culinary gods, this is the where the cooking was just taken to another level.

Once again, it was all about the ingredient, and not messing around with it, if you read my previous post on 5 tips of how to cook fish, the principles are the same, don't shake the pan, get a really good golden brown colour on one side, turn them over, butter, aromatics, lemon juice, olive oil, done deal!

Here are my top tips for cooking Scallops!

Tip 1 - Keep the scallops onto a dry towel or kitchen paper, as this will help them cook and not boil in the pan.

Tip 2 - Use a non-stick pan, make sure the pan is hot before adding the corn or vegetable oil. If you done have a non-stick pan at home, use a little bit of baking paper, it has the same effect. The oil should be almost at smoking point before adding the scallops in the pan, this will help with the immediate caramelising.

Tip 3 - The oil needs to be a corn oil or a vegetable oil, do not use olive oil as it burns quickly this can burnt flavour will then be transferred onto the scallops.

Tip 4 - Season the scallops on both sides just before placing them in the pan - salt only no black pepper, the reason for this, as soon as salt touches the scallop, the water is drawn out, and instead of caramelising you will be boiling them, which is not cool, and not the desired effect.

Tip 5 - Throw in a knob of butter, rosemary, olive oil, lemon juice in the pan. Do this when you have completely coloured the scallop on one side, turn the scallops over, then boom, throw in these ingredients, baste over the scallop for 10-15 seconds, turn the heat off, leave to rest for a minute, then serve.

Those are my top tips, now for the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

CLEANED SCALLOPS - ROE OFF

SEA SALT

CORN OIL - 30G

BUTTER-UNSALTED 40G

OIL-EXTRA VIRGIN 10G

ROSEMARY-FRESH-1 SPRIG

GARLIC- FRESH 1 SLICE

LEMOM JUICE-FRESH- TO DEGLAZE

METHOD

Place a non-stick pan on a medium heat, add the corn oil, make sure the oil is hot before cooking the scallops.

Season on both sides with sea salt.

Once the oil is hot, place the scallops flat side down onto the pan, and do not shake the pan.

Leave to caramelise, making sure to get a lovely brown crust.

Once 3 quarters cooked, add in the butter, then the olive oil, flip the fish over-place in the aromatics and lemon juice-take off the heat-let the fish rest-serve!

Follow these methods and you won't go wrong.

Till next time.

JKP