Fishing for some scallops

Scallop, from the old French word escalope, meaning ‘shell’ is a common name applied to many species of marine bivalve molluscs. Scallops are a cosmopolitan family, found in all of the world’s oceans.

Scallops are one of my all time favourite shellfish to cook and to eat as well,  par with crabs and lobsters.

They are a highly prized and not cheap when they appear on restaurant menus. The bay scallops are small and are cheaper than the real King or Queen Scallops and generally about eight pieces in a kilo.

The brightly coloured, fan-shaped shells of some scallops, with their radiating, fluted patterns, are valued by shell collectors, and have been used since ancient times as motifs in art and design.

Scallops are characterised by having two types of meat in one shell: the adductor muscle, called “scallop”, which is white and meaty, and the roe, called “coral”, which is red or white and soft.

In Europe, the scallops are sold whole with shells, and very often they are opened, scooped out and baked in its shell with cheese and breadcrumbs.

One of my favourite is an old classic dish Coquille St Jacques, in which the scallops are cooked with cream and pernod (a fennel-flavoured liqueur), gratinated with parmesan and baked, definitely not for the calorie-conscious types.

I have cooked with scallops in Scotland, US and Canada. One of the best scallops in the world come from a small Canadian town Digby in Nova Scotia.

Last year, when filming for Vicky Goes Foreign, I got an opportunity to go on a boat in the Bay of Fundy and eat scallops straight off the boat. Yes, raw; sweet and sexy. I did an interesting recipe with them as well. Try the recipe. If you can’t find scallops, substitute it with any other shellfish.

Enjoy, Bon Appétit.

Garlic chutney scallops with scallion crema
To prepare garlic chutney scallops
Ingredients
Scallops: 5 to 6
Lasun chutney: 2 tsp
Salt and pepper
Olive oil: 1 tbsp

Method
Marinate the scallops with lemon juice, salt, pepper. Dab them in Lasun Chutney (the same one from the vada pao wala)
Heat some oilive oil in the pan, sear the scallops 50 seconds on either side. Rest on a pate. Serve with the scallion crema

To prepareScallion crema
Ingredients
Scallions green and white part: 1 cup
Butter: 1 tbsp
Cream: ½ cup
Stock: ½ cup
Crushed ice: 1 tbsp

Method
Sweat the scallions in butter for 30 seconds, add the stock, cream and simmer for two minutes. Add the crushed ice and blend to a smooth puree.