"scallops recipe" news and stories

For those of us who are scallops lovers, a world of steamed clams, herbed mussels and Blue Point oysters on a bed of ice won't turn our heads like this recipe, originally from Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The masterful chef plays up the inherent creaminess of the scallops with, yes, cream and butter (well, he's French, isn't he?), but gently complements the richness with tomatoes, Champagne vinegar and tart, lemony wood sorrel, both in the sauce and as a garnish.

Long Island and Nantucket bay scallops may not be in season until November, but Florida's harvest, despite the Gulf oil spill, has remained safe, and is available now. You could use sea scallops in this recipe, and they're more readily available year-round, but treat yourselves to the more tender bay scallop. See blogger tinybanquet's post about the dish, and about the scallops.

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Happy National Baked Scallops Day!

Although we love our scallops with a texturizing sear, Flickr photographer Special*Dark has swayed us over to the baked scallop team with this tantalizing baked scallops and salmon with dill recipe, adapted from Gourmet magazine. He tossed scallops with baby carrots, fingerling potatoes, red onions, lemon slices, a hefty branch of fresh dill and a drop of white wine, baking them in an aluminum foil pouch, allowing the ingredients to stew in their own juices.

Writes blogger All Things Chill, "You get a lot of wow factor when you bring the pouch to your guest (or hungry girlfriend) and they crack it open to release the most fragrant steam. It's an instant drool catalyst." We can only imagine the steamy aromatic scent -- and are eager to recreate it in our own kitchen soon.

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We're a sucker for the culinary frenzy of seasonal items when they first hit local menus -- Chesapeake soft-shell crabs, wild Alaskan salmon or Louisiana crawfish. Here in New England, just when the weather turns cold and dreary, that happy tidbit of deliciousness comes in the form of sweet, succulent Nantucket bay scallops. Just don't confuse them with their larger sea-scallop cousins.

These morsels are about the size of the tip of your thumb. The native eelgrass that surrounds the island acts as a nursery for the tender scallops, making them the last substantial wild scallop population on the East Coast, according to Peter Boyce, chair of Nantucket's Harbor and Shellfish Advisory Board. The commercial scallop season starts Nov. 1 and runs through the end of March, but most of the madness happens prior to New Year's, before the harbor freezes over and fishermen can still get their boats out on the water.