Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [166]
Tiny scallops need no more dressing than a drop or two of lemon, lime or bitter orange juice. They look attractive heaped on to red and cream radicchio leaves, or nested into some curly endive. Serve wholemeal bread with them, and white wine. Put a pepper mill handy and some cayenne.
Larger scallops will benefit from slicing across into two or three discs or more. Taste them before you season them with any salt. Brush a plate over with a top quality olive oil, arrange the slices on it and brush them over lightly with more oil. Keep it very light, the oil.
For a simpler effect, slice the discs across as thinly as you can and put them into a bowl in which you have mixed 125 ml (4 fl oz) olive oil and the juice of a large lemon, pepper and salt. Stir the slices gently, but thoroughly, then drain and arrange them in little heaps – say in the shell, or in the centre of a pile of salad – just before you serve them. Do not leave the scallops in the oil for any length of time.
You can add steamed samphire tips (p. 83) and, if you want to make a contrast, a little salmon tartare (p. 321). Scallops prepared in this way, with oil, could be put into scallops shells with a half-wreath of samphire. Steady the shells on a little mound of coarse salt or a circle of seaweed.
If you rejoice in a supply of really fine fresh fish and shellfish, sashimi on p. 364 is a good way of making the most of it, scallops and three other fish of contrasting texture and colour do very well.
CORAL SAUCE
There are a number of ways of using corals to flavour – and colour – a sauce. You can, for instance, use them when making an hollandaise*: liquidize or process them with hot melted butter after cooking them for a few seconds in the butter just to stiffen them slightly. It is important to avoid overcooking the coral part.
This kind of sauce goes well with a scallop mousseline or a fish terrine in which the white part of scallops has been used, along with other fish, p. 512.
Serves 4
500 ml (15 fl oz) fish stock*
1 tablespoon chopped shallot
6 peppercorns, lightly crushed
4 tablespoons dry white wine
175 ml (6 fl oz) crème fraîche
corals from 12 scallops or more, any black bits removed
60 g (2 oz) unsalted butter
salt, pepper, cayenne
If the fish stock had been made with a proportion of shellfish debris, so much the better. It can also include any juices left from cooking the white part of the scallops, or the fish it is to accompany.
Cook the shallot, peppercorns and wine until you have no more liquid, just a moist purée. Add half the cream and reduce by half. Meanwhile, liquidize or process the remaining cream with the corals and set aside.
Add the stock to the shallot and cream reduction and reduce again to a lightly syrupy consistency. Lower the heat, stir in the coral/cream mixture, then the butter – keep shaking the pan, or stirring it, so that the sauce thickens slightly without the butter oiling. Lift the pan from the heat every so often, to prevent overheating. Finally, season to taste.
COQUILLES SAINT-JACQUES À LA PROVENÇALE
As this recipe is often given in cookery books, here is a quick summary of it with one important improvement – the separate cooking of the breadcrumbs.
Fry the white part of scallops with garlic and sliced mushrooms – 250 g (8 oz) to 20 scallops – adding coral at the end of the cooking time. At the same time fry about 60 g (2 oz) white breadcrumbs in butter in another pan, with 2 tablespoons of olive oil as well. Mix in plenty of chopped parsley. Drain scallops and mushrooms, mix with the breadcrumbs and serve quickly with lemon quarters.
COQUILLES SAINT-JACQUES FLAMBÉES ‘GORDON’
Searching after the fish in Normandy and its purlieus one year, we seemed rather to find Joan of Arc instead. At Le Crotoy, near its famous seafood restaurant (Moules à ma façon, Gurnards provençales), we saw a tablet in the ruined castle wall to sour our sleep. Here the French had handed Joan of Arc over to the English, and from here on 8 December she had walked across the mouth