Recipes

We dined on Sea Scallops recently at a party we sponsored at our home.  The experience reminded me of my New England roots and reignited my appetite for this delicious mollusk.   If you’re serving scallops, either as an appetizer or an entre, go with the Diver version. These are scooped up by hand off the ocean bottom by divers, allowing them to select only those that are mature with firm, plump flesh.  They tend to be far less gritty than those dredged by nets and usually find their way to market faster than those retrieved by net.  While they’re more expensive than the alternative, I think it’s worth it.  Besides, it’s a little more of an ecologically friendly method.

To satisfy my yearning for scallops, I searched out an easy recipes from Thomas Keller’s book: Ad Hoc at Home.   This is about as simple as it gets.  It’s his recipe for Caramelized Sea Scallops that serves 6 (ok, maybe 4 if you’re particularly hungry). He combines kosher sea salt with 2 cups of water and brings it to a boil, making certain that the salt has fully dissolved.  Add 8 cups of cold water and then the sea scallops to allow them to brine.  Allow to stand for 10 minutes but no longer as the scallops will become too salty.  Drain, rinse the scallops and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with paper towels.