276556 Tue Feb 15 14:19:19 -0800 2005 15 31 Home Cooking 0 1459508 I have a bag of frozen Trader Joe's scallops in my freezer. I would love some creative ideas for a meal. I'm not too keen on cream sauces but otherwise I'm pretty open to anything. Tue Feb 15 14:19:19 -0800 2005 0 Keri T. 1 1459509 How about pan seared with some soy and sesame seeds served over rice noodles. Link: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/107069 Tue Feb 15 14:22:52 -0800 2005 1459508 0 AimeeP 1 1459510 SERVES 4 2 minced, peeled garlic cloves 2 tbsp. butter 2 dozen bay scallops 2 tbsp. dry white wine 8 Ritz crackers 2 tbsp. freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano 1. Set oven rack in upper third of oven; then preheat oven to 400°. Divide 2 minced, peeled garlic cloves between 4 small gratin dishes, add 1 tbsp. butter to each, and place in oven until butter melts. 2. Remove dishes from oven, and add about 1 dozen bay scallops and 1 tbsp. dry white wine to each dish; spoon sauce over scallops until evenly coated. Crumble 4 Ritz crackers over scallops in each dish; then sprinkle each with 1 tbsp. freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano. 3. Bake scallops until they are hot and have turned opaque, about 10 minutes. Switch oven to broil, and cook until cracker crumbs and cheese are lightly browned on top. from saveur Tue Feb 15 14:25:09 -0800 2005 1459508 0 cracker 1 1459514 How about Low Fat Scallop Fish Tacos? Link: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Sandwich/FishTaco.htm Tue Feb 15 15:15:47 -0800 2005 1459508 0 Anne in SF 2 1459516 Yeeps! I just noticed she added Splenda to the list of ingredients... if splenda is not your thing, go ahead and omit or substitute with regular sugar. Tue Feb 15 15:16:58 -0800 2005 1459514 0 Anne in SF 1 1459517 I have to admit I've not had much luck with pan searing scallops at home, possibly because thawed or "wet" (with preservatives) scallops don't brown as nicely as the dry ones. So I do this instead: Pat 1 lb scallops as dry as you can between two paper towels. Melt 2 tbsp of herb butter and mix with juice of half a lime. Cool, dunk the scallops and lay them out in a broiler pan. Pour any leftover butter over the scallops. Broil for a few minutes, about 5 for larger scallops. They won't sear brown (at least, not in my crummy city kitchen broiler) but they are very tasty. I serve this with a green vegetable and a bit of orzo to sop up the scallop-butter-lime juices. Tue Feb 15 15:21:01 -0800 2005 1459508 0 plum 2 1459537 Wet is a factor so dry the scallops well. But a HOT pan will do the trick. And I mean HOT HOT HOT! It should smoke before anything goes in it. High quality pans can stand the heat. Tue Feb 15 17:23:57 -0800 2005 1459517 0 Lilly 3 1459601 Yep, a professional chef once told me that when you think the pan is hot enough, it probably should be hotter! And it works. Sometimes, I heat the pan in a 550 degree oven for a while and take it out when I'm ready to use it. I use cast iron and DO NOT CROWD THE PAN. When I flip the scallops, I put them on a spot that didn't have a scallop before, as the pan is hotter there. Wed Feb 16 11:51:40 -0800 2005 1459537 0 bacchante 2 1459917 I have this vague recollection from years ago of orange flavored scallops. I'm thinking your technique might work well to try and duplicate it. I seem to recall that it used orange zest which presented a nice contrast with the sweet scallops, I also think the zest was either put in while they were seared or else glazed on afterward. Wouldn't the former cause it to burn? I once tried just putting the zest in the pan afterward, deglazing and making a sauce, but it just didn't have that tang I was looking for. Any ideas? Fri Feb 18 19:48:08 -0800 2005 1459517 0 PolarBear 1 1459530 What size did you get? Tue Feb 15 16:42:04 -0800 2005 1459508 0 kc girl 2 1459533 I think they're diver (is that a size?). They're the bigger ones. Tue Feb 15 16:49:27 -0800 2005 1459530 0 Keri T. 3 1459540 Diver scallops have nothing to do with the size. Here's a great Q&A about them (courtesy of ChefTalk.com): Diver scallops have been all the rage on menus across the country. To better understand what diver scallops are and how they are actually harvested, ChefTalk.com tracked down veteran scallop diver Tim Hunt from Deer Isle, Maine. Tim has been collecting scallops from the icy Atlantic for the last 20 years. ChefTalk: So tell us, what exactly is a "diver scallop". Tim Hunt: A diver scallop is exactly what the name means--scallops that are collected from the ocean by divers hand-picking each one. The majority of the scallops on the market are harvested by boats that drag heavy chain sweeps across the ocean floor. The diver scallops are less gritty than the dragged ones. Diver scallops are also a much more ecologically friendly way of harvesting scallops. CT: How exactly does one dive for scallops? TH: A diver jumps into water and descends to the ocean floor. One by one, he picks the scallops off the rocks. It is sometimes difficult to find them when the water visibility is diminished--sometimes only 2-3 feet! Responsible scallop divers only take the big ones and leave the smaller scallops alone until the grow into a larger size. The scallops are then placed into scallop bags. When the bag is full, the diver signals the boat above to hoist up the sack and send an empty one down. I stay under water for one tank which is about 45-60 minutes. CT: How many scallops can you harvest in one hour? TH: Now, I get about the equivalent of 13 lbs. scallops for each tank. When I was younger, I could dive 6 times (or 6 tanks of oxygen) a day and harvest about 100 lbs. of cleaned scallops in that time. Now the most I can do is to dive 3 times in a day--the equivalent of 3 oxygen tanks. CT: How deep do you need to dive to find scallops? TH: You can find scallops at many different depths. These days I dive 45-50 feet down to get the scallops. In the past, I dove as deep as 100 feet to find them. CT: Are the better scallops found in deeper waters? TH: Kind of. What makes a good scallop is less a matter of depth and more a matter of water current. Where there is a healthy current, the scallops grow the best and the fastest since the water current brings them an abundance of food. Scallops from areas with good water current also have a firm flesh with very little, if any grit. If the current is poor, the scallops are often soft and grainy. I have in the past occasionally found quality scallops in as little as 8 feet of water. In reality, what happens now is that the people who dive for sea urchins are taking all the scallops in the 25 feet water. We then need to go deeper to find scallops. CT: Is there a season for scallops? TH: Absolutely. We can legally dive for scallops from Nov. 1- April 15. You can drag for scallops year round as long as you go at least 3 miles out from the shoreline. Often, these scallops are gray in color. They are also frequently soaked in a solution to preserve them. This frustrates me as it really damages the product. It also damages me because if the reputation of the scallop suffers, then it hurts everyone's business. CT: Out of curiosity, what is the biggest scallop you have ever harvested? TH: I once found a scallop that weighed in at 3/4 lb. A friend of mine once got one that was a pound. Quite frankly, in Maine, most people consider the smaller scallops (15-25 count--meaning 15-25 pieces per pound) to be the best eating scallops. The larger scallops often don't have as nice and firm a texture as these do. CT: What about the dangers involved in diving for scallops? TH: The only real danger is decompression or the benz. That can be a serious thing. Only twice in 20 years have I seen a large shark, but they were very uninterested in me. And then there is arthritis which I now have in all my joints. But I just love diving. CT: I have heard a lot in the last few years about the dangers of depleting the oceans. Are we in danger of fishing out the scallop population? TH: We've already done that. I've been screaming bloody murder for 20 years. In general people have not looked to the future, but only been concerned about the present. They have had the attitude that the future would sort itself out. In Japan for instance, they are careful to be constantly replenishing their stocks. Here, the divers for a long time used to just take the big scallops so that there would always be plenty. You could literally harvest from the same location year after year Dragging the bottom has not only hurt the scallop population, but all the shellfish as these chain sweeps tear up everything in their path. Tue Feb 15 17:37:13 -0800 2005 1459533 0 MSPD 4 1459547 Thanks for this - it sounds like I need to be more careful in choosing my scallops! Tue Feb 15 18:15:29 -0800 2005 1459540 0 rudeboy 1 1459544 There is a recipe at Epicurious for scallops that are coated in graham cracker crumbs and pan fried. It is served with a cool lime cream sauce. It is delicious. The graham cracker crumbs compliment the scallops in an indescribible way. Look it up and try it. It was meant for a first course but I have made it for dinner. It is titled Crisp Sea Scallops with Horseradish Lime Sauce. The recipe at EPI for celery root remoulade with scallops is a winner too. Tue Feb 15 17:55:15 -0800 2005 1459508 0 Candy 1 1459553 I usually have a bag of TJ's jumbo New England scallops on hand...plump, sweet, and versatile. I defrost them slowly in tepid water and pat them dry VERY well. S&P them well before searing. Ways that I've used scallops: -Thai seafood curry: stir fry onions, garlic, red bell pepper, zucchini, carrots and season w/ coconut milk, red chiles, yellow curry powder, Thai basil, fish sauce, lime juice; scallops are slowly poached w/ veggies towards end of cooking; I've thrown in shrimp as well before -Seared scallops w/ angel hair pasta: sear scallops; light sauce is made by deglazing pan w/ little white wine; finish sauce w/ EVOO, finely-diced roasted red peppers (prefer TJ's canned to fresh for this dish), basil shards, minced garlic -Seared scallops w/ fennel salad: fry bacon pieces; reserve some rendered fat and add little oil to sear scallops; make salad of sliced fennel and apples and dress w/ EVOO, lemon juice, cider vinegar; place scallops atop salad and garnish w/ bacon Tue Feb 15 19:44:26 -0800 2005 1459508 0 Carb Lover 1 1459606 As another poster said, be sure they are quite dry. Sear them very quickly in a very hot pan with a bit of butter to help the browning. A dusting of cayenne before they go in also will help with browning and give a nice taste if you like it. When the scallops are very sweet (you can tell by the smell), I prefer to finish them with something with a some of sweetness rather than dry white wine, which I think adds a harshness that detracts from the scallop taste. Dry vermouth is what I usually use, but reisling or gewurtz probably would do. Even though you said no cream sauce, a tablespoon per serving to help deglaze the pan will coat them nicely with flavor without creating a sauce. Since the pan is still pretty hot, it cooks right down. When you add the cream, add some shallots that you previously have cooked in a bit of butter. Or else sprinkle the finished scallops with snipped chives. When they're not extraordinarily sweet, I sometimes use regular dry white wine to deglaze and put in some lemon zest and chopped capers--the ones that come packed in salt rather than the ones that come in brine. Wed Feb 16 12:05:43 -0800 2005 1459508 0 bacchante