Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [168]
GRILLED SCALLOPS
The simplest and many would say the best way of cooking scallops is to grill them.
First switch on the grill so that it is really hot by the time you come to cook the fish. Find a flat baking sheet or fireproof shallow dish that will stand up to the heat, and brush it over with butter or olive oil.
Prepare the scallops, cutting the thicker ones across into two discs. Set them out in a single layer on the sheet or dish, having turned them in seasoned olive oil. Alternatively, dab them with butter or brush with melted butter, and season them once they are in place. Put the corals round the edge, where the heat will not be so intense.
Slip them under the grill, at a distance of 8–10 cm (3–4 inches). Turn them once, as the tops colour lightly. Depending on the thickness of the scallops, they will take between 3 and 5 minutes in all. It is wise to include an extra scallop as a tester.
VARIATION Flavour the oil in which you turn the scallops with chopped garlic and lemon juice. Add cayenne pepper to the seasonings.
VARIATION By mixing a proportion of olive oil into a flavoured butter, you get a soft consistency that makes it easier to dab on shellfish. Here is an example, quantities for 4 people:
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 halved cloves garlic
6 anchovy fillets
leaves of 1 medium bunch of parsley, chervil and chives
125 g (4 oz) lightly salted Lurpak or unsalted butter
salt, pepper
Process the first four ingredients to an even crumbly mixture, then add the butter, cut in cubes. Season to taste. Serve with lemon wedges.
VARIATION Grill the white parts only of the scallops. Turn the corals into a sauce to go with them, see following recipe.
VARIATION Certain vegetables go well with scallops. Leeks cut into slivers and cooked down with a knob of butter, in their own juices. Red and yellow peppers roasted in a very hot oven, then skinned, seeded and cut in pieces when they are very soft: they can be reheated and dressed with a little of the flavoured butter used for basting the scallops, or just a light chopping of garlic, parsley, and lemon peel thinly removed with a zester.
Sea vegetables, laverbread reheated with orange and lemon juice perhaps, or steamed marsh samphire are good accompaniments.
SCALLOPS EN BROCHETTE
Scallops with bacon does not seem as surprising as it did twenty years ago, now that we have become used to mixtures of fish and meat (surf ’n’ turf as it is unpleasantly, if snappily, described in some quarters). Monkfish, tope and the other meaty fishes, cod, mussels and oysters are all good treated the same way.
The basic treatment is simple enough, and easy to vary according to your fancy. The important thing is to acquire excellent bacon, smoked or not according to your tastes. Streaky cured in the German style is good. In Britain, Ayrshire or Yorkshire bacon sliced very thin is superb – the fat it provides bastes the scallops and drips away, while the bacon itself turns crisp (with many modern whizz cures only a whitish sort of brine emerges and the bacon goes tough).
Allow 3–4 scallops per person and enough thinly cut bacon to provide 7 or 9 squares, roughly the same size as the scallops.
You also need a nice chopping of parsley and garlic, with a pinch of thyme, and a little sunflower or safflower oil.
Slice the white part of the scallops into two discs. Put them on to 6 skewers, interspersed with the bacon pieces and the corals. Brush them over with oil and roll in the herbs and garlic so that they are nicely but not thickly speckled.
Put under a preheated grill for about 5 minutes, turning at least once. The scallops should be just cooked, the edges of the bacon slightly caught by the heat.
Serve on warm plates, with lemon wedges, bread and a bottle of dry white wine, Muscadet being the obvious choice. A jug of hot melted butter is all you need by way of sauce: many people will find they need nothing, but give them the option.
SCALLOPS NEWBURG
The famous Delmonico recipe for lobster is easily adapted to scallops, as it is to other sweet,