Rare Baked Scallops

Careful readers of this space will know that our menu choices are often inspired by the National Day Calendar -- and that we often do not consult it early enough to make a solid plan. In these unprecedented times, we have to balance among three factors: our desire to get the meal right, our willingness to improvise, our ability to improvise, and our willingness to risk an extra grocery run.

To these usual considerations, we added a bit of seaside snobbery to the decision matrix for Friday's dinner. The most important scalloping harbor on the planet is minutes from our weekend kitchen -- we do not subject fresh scallops to heavy-handed preparations, and we certainly do not BAKE them. But Friday was -- for whatever reason -- National Baked Scallops Day -- so we decided to make an effort. Even the calendar page suggests that baking is not the best way to treat scallops, but I must admit I did not even read the recipe posted there.

Rather, I turned to our weekend-kitchen bookshelf for Scallops: A New England Coastal Cookbook by Elaine Tammi, Karin Tammi, and Chris Schlesinger. This is more of a scallop bible than just a cookbook. I decided that if these authors had ideas for baking, they would be good enough for me

I found "Baked Scallops with Bacon Bits" and decided to proceed without the bacon. Even though it turns out we did have enough free-range bacon on hand to have provided these bits, they were certainly optional. I also concerned myself with an ingredient from the recipe on the previous page in the cookbook, "Baked Scallops and Leeks." My lazy reading conflated the recipes, but I do not regret it. Having no leeks -- and being willing only to go to the fishmonger, not the grocery -- I decided to use an onion, but with the mildest preparation possible. So it came to be that I sautéed a thinly sliced onion over very low heat with a lot of butter. I spooned this into the bottom of a small baking dish.

I cleaned the scallops carefully -- removing that muscly "foot" from each one makes a BIG difference in any scallop meal. I then used this recipe's key innovation: poaching. I simply poured boiling water over a bowlful of scallops and let them rest for two minutes before draining. Scallops are so sensitive to heat that even this very mild form of cooking made them all opaque. I neglected to add a bit of vinegar -- again, I was not so much following this recipe as allowing it to exert a bit of influence on a freelance effort.

I then prepared a "wash" by whisking an egg with a bit of water and Tabasco. using indispensable tongs (click-click!), I drenched each one and then dredged it in flour. The recipe called for dredging in bread crumbs as well, but I opted to sprinkle them on top, and then to drizzle just a bit of melted butter over the entire dish. I baked 15 minutes at 400F and then broiled (from the center of the oven, not top-rack) for 5 more minutes.

Baked scallops -- a rare sighting that might become
more common at Whaling House

The result: perfect! I am convinced that the gentle poaching was key -- it gave the scallops just enough of a cooking start that the baking time could be limited and toughness avoided. This paired nicely with a chilled Chardonnay from our favorite local vineyard.

The other key: my favorite librarian, life partner, and co-blogger has asked that I mention an additional key to the success of this dish. I like putting bread crumbs on casseroles; Pamela does not. But some while ago, she realized that panko crumbs are different. She liked this dish because I used panko and not the "toaster shakings" I might otherwise have imposed on the dish!

Lagniappe

Please see my 2018 post Hot Island Hot Spot for information about the McIlhenny efforts on behalf of the rapidly disappearing coastal lands of Louisiana and Tough Shape for more thoughts on the importance of coastal erosion there.