Scallops en Casserole

I am starting this post with the lovely cover art of the cookbook involved in this recipe. As with most casseroles, this dinner was many good things, but photogenic was not one of them!

We had picked up Scallops: A New England Coastal Cookbook some while ago in New Bedford, where these things are decided. Elaine Tammi and Karin A. Tammi have written not just a cookbook, but a celebration that honors the work and heritage.

As regular readers of this blog will know, we have taken full advantage of being able to spend our weekends alongside the country's leading fishing port. New Bedford's string of 19 years of leading the nation in fishing revenue has equally to do with the hard work of its mariners and the high value of its scallops. My year-round rowing adventures include keeping a careful eye for the ships that are bringing in that catch or heading out for more, rain or shine, by sunlight or moonlight or lamplight.

We enjoy buying those scallops at Kyler's catch (cars in front, trucks to the side, boats out back), where the seafood is FRESH and the staff incredibly knowledgeable. If we go to Kyler's with a recipe for something that is not available -- because it is not available locally -- they will help us find a local alternative. We have prepared those scallops in a variety of ways, mostly on the stovetop and mostly with few other ingredients, because the delicate flavor and texture of the precious scallops should be primary. So as much as I have enjoyed browsing Scallops, we had not yet found something both novel and simple enough to try.

Until yesterday -- local friends who were raised in coastal Connecticut were coming over for dinner, and I decided to dare trying something new with people who really know their seafood. I have eaten scallop casseroles of various kinds before, but this would be the first one I would prepare myself -- from page 300.

BUT WAIT: Back up a bit. Before doing anything with the scallops, I started roasting potatoes, because this is yummy but takes a long time. I cut small red potatoes (with very thin skins) into quarters and tossed them with olive oil, pepper, Old Bay, and a few other spices. I put these in the oven at 400 so they would have at least a half-hour lead on the seafood.

I did venture three modifications to the recipe: I added a shallot and I used sea scallops instead of the tiny bay scallops. I am loathe to part ways with the expert authors, but bay scallops overcook so easily that I did not want to risk baking them into little balls of rubber. The third modification is the topping -- I bought thinly sliced almonds and further chopped them before toasting them with butter in a cast-iron skillet. This was to avoid the buttered breadcrumbs in the recipe, which I enjoy but my sweetheart does not -- especially when I overdo them, which I always do.

I started with melting butter to saute portobello mushrooms, scallions, and shallots. When they were all softened, I thoroughly stirred in two tablespoons flour and then slowly added a cup of white wine a dash of lemon juice, two pounds of trimmed scallops and a bit of fresh parsley. I melted butter in a casserole dish and spread this mixture into it, after just a minute or so of simmering. I then topped them with the toasted almond crumbs.

I baked this for 20 minutes, and the result was disappointing at first: it looked like soup. I gave it an additional 15 -- which seemed way too long, but necessary. I then realized that although a bit soupy (perhaps because of the shallot), the "soup" was thickened, and a few minutes of rest would allow it to rethicken. This turned out to be correct, and the result was unanimously declared delicious. It paired well with the roasted potatoes and of course with some local white wines.

Thank the mariners!
Photo: (The incomparable) Peter Pereira, N.B. Standard-Times

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.

Red Chili Scallops

We promise this will not become a blog devoted exclusively to the Big Green Egg. As we mentioned in yesterday's salmon post, buying the Egg was much like joining a cult. But we promise we're still just ordinary foodies, and we will return to "normal" cooking soon. But our anniversary weekend did give us a chance to explore the Egg's capabilities as we gradually get comfortable with it.

Regular readers of the blog will know that the scallops of New Bedford are a source of regional pride and regular enjoyment. They are both delicious and sustainably harvested, and we get them as fresh as they can be from Kyler's Catch, right across the harbor from our home in Fairhaven.

The recipe we chose this time was Red Chili Scallops, again from the Egg cookbook and web site. We were intrigued by the idea of a "rub" for something as small as a scallop, but it worked out well. Pam came as close as possible to the mix of spices described -- basically all of the hot, red ones -- and put them through a coffee mill that we have now decided is for spices. (You can repurpose a coffee mill for spices, but going the other way would require a ridiculous amount of cleaning.)

After Pam prepared the rub, we prepared the salsa together. Meaning Pam prepared everything except for the mango. The only substitution was white onion for the red. My contribution of the mango dicing was significant, though, because we did not have our mango splitter on hand, and I was reduced to the kind of hacking that I did in our pre-splitter days. I honestly wonder how humans ever got involved with mangos in the first place, given how difficult they are to work with!

Dinner was a success, even without one of these!

Once the salsa and rub were ready, I started the grill, and it was at the 400F cooking temperature in about ten minutes. While it was heating, I rinsed the scallops and essentially rolled them in the rub. Although the Egg writers get scallops from some place where they are large and only 12 to the pound, we had about 20 pieces in the pound we purchased, so rolling was the simplest option.

I was a little nervous about the timing suggested in the recipe. How could I cook these for two minutes on each side, when it would take me at least a minute of open-grill time to turn them? Also, just opening the Egg to put the scallops on the cast-iron grill, I noticed that the temperature drops. So I decided arbitrarily to try three minutes per side. I noticed that a few of the scallops near the edges of the grill were sticking a bit, suggesting that they had not gotten fully seared even in the three minutes. I watched the temperature dip after turning the scallops, so the three minutes seemed right. Again, there was a slight bit of sticking, but the scallops were cooked through quite nicely, and seared nicely for the most part.

The result was quite piquant -- even for us Southwestern types -- but the heat of the scallops balanced nicely with the cool salsa. It all went well with the creamy Alfredo that Pam had prepared while I was grilling, and the Pinot Grigio complimented the entire meal. This was an ideal anniversary meal, as we each contributed equally to its success and in sharing its enjoyment!

Cedar Scallops

Libraries are important. VERY important. See my Just Read post for some thoughts on libraries and civil rights, courtesy of the remarkable John Lewis. See Pam's "Library" Books Blog for her reviews of scores of books that celebrate or at least mention libraries directly. Pam is a consummate librarian, having served in a bilingual environment as a reference librarian in the McAllen (Texas) Public Library and as an academic librarian at the Maxwell Library at Bridgewater State University. Currently, she is a candidate for election to a third term as a volunteer trustee of the Bridgewater Public Library as well.

So when Pam has a library-related achievement, we need to celebrate. And recently we got news of just such an achievement. Starting in 1997 as a part-time, adjunct librarian, she has been promoted through the ranks of Assistant Librarian, Associate Librarian, and Librarian. The recent news is that she will next be promoted to the highest ranks of librarianship in our system: SENIOR LIBRARIAN. This is based on years of active service in committees, public service, outreach, and scholarship regarding information literacy.

This was a big deal, which called not only for a nice, bubbly wine from Westport Rivers, but also for a special preparation of one of our favorite foods: New Bedford scallops from Kyler's Catch. Wanting to take some time with this, I turned to the Big Green Egg Cookbook, where I found a nice recipe that called for wrapping scallops in cedar papers.

Unfortunately, we could not find such papers -- neither at Kylers nor at our trusty Big Green Egg local supplier in Fairhaven, But Kylers did have cedar planks -- which careful readers will remember I used with salmon last year -- so we decided to improvise.

Timing was tricky -- grilling outside while putting together a sauce inside. I soaked the cedar plank a couple hours ahead of time. This is essential unless the cedar is to serve simply as a way of burning the scallops.

Then I started the coals, and after that the sauce. It involved sauteeing shallots, fresh thyme, organge zest and a bay leaf in some butter, then simmering with white wine, and finally adding cream and then reducing. It looks like a fascinating soup is under way, but none of this ended up on our plates. Rather this was sieved and then poured over the scallops (see below).

Meanwhile -- literally running back and forth to the grill -- I planked the scallops. This meant removing the cedar plank from its pan of water, and putting it on the grill for a couple minutes on one side before flipping it and brushing it lightly with oil. I then arranged the scallops on it and grilled for about five minutes on each side -- Big Green Egg lid closed of course -- being very careful with the turning of the scallops.

The result was worthy of such an occasion -- smoky scallops with a savory, complex sauce over fettucine with a nice local bubbly. 

And the best part about Pam's promotion: it is recognition for what she has already achieved: no new obligations attached. Now that was worth celebrating!

Scallop Fettuccine

Until a couple of years ago, scallops were something I only ate if I encountered them by chance -- usually a small scallop wrapped in bacon as a passed hors d'œuvre, or part of a medley seafood chowder. Then a student whose father catches scallops from Gloucester for a living brought me some fresh from the boat, along with a couple of recipes. It was then that I learned that if the decadence had already reached the level of scallops wrapped in bacon, then genuine maple syrup might as well also be involved.

Anyway, the succulence of those scallops set rather a high bar, so I have done very little with scallops since that first bout. Yesterday, though, I bought some along with the sockeye salmon, from the same seaside source.

For a going-away dinner this evening (Pam is off to Saskatoon for a week), I decided to make a nice Fettuccine Alfredo with these. I know I have done so a couple of times before, but I went online to look for some advice on just how to do it. I was very pleased to find My Food Adventure Book, a blog quite similar to our Nueva Receta -- foodie, but low-key.

Ours looked pretty much like this.
Photo: My Food Adventure Book

I enjoyed blogger Laura's Jumbo Scallops recipe, and will be modifying it just a bit this evening, to use a slightly different assortment of ingredients we have on hand. As we did last night, of course, we also had a Colchester salad.

I won't re-create Laura's instructions here; but will just mention the modifications I made. My usual approach to Alfredo is found in 365 Ways to Cook Pasta, which asserts that the use of cream is not authentic, and that butter and Parmesan are plenty. I accept the concept, but usually compromise with a little bit of cream. This evening I followed the Food Adventure approach -- itself a compromise with heavier versions, but instead of heavy cream, I used half-and-half.

We had no lemons and have depleted our second bag of limes, so I used commercial juice in the sauce, and I used Lebherz lemon-infused olive oil to sear the scallops. The last, most decadent adjustment: freshness is the name of the scallops game, so we divided a full pound!

We had the last of the 2011 Cinco Cães (Five Dogs) from Westport Rivers -- a bit fruity to be a perfect pairing, but quite a welcome accompaniment.

The family verdict: Delicious! -- though Paloma would have cut back on the lemon.

Vincent Price Scallops

As I recently wrote on my Environmental Geography blog, my early birthday gift to Pam is a fiftieth-anniversary edition of Mary & Vincent Price's A Treasury of Great Recipes. It is a lush volume based on travel to many of the great restaurants of the world a half-century ago. My particular focus was on a perfectly horrific coffee recipe, but we are confident that most of what fills these pages will be as delightful as our first use of the book -- a simple recipe involving scallops!

The recipe for "Cape Cod Scallops Sauté Meunière" is one of several from the venerable Locke-Ober restaurant in Boston. The menu and woodcut illustration of the restaurant exemplify the kinds of places that fill this volume, and evoke the atmosphere of a restaurant established when Ulysses S. Grant was president of the United States.

Because Boston is a place that loves its history, I assumed we might be able to make a bit of a pilgrimage, but alas, it closed without fanfare in 2012.

The comments sections in the article about the closing and in an article about the opening of Yvonne's in the same location reveal a lot about the changing geography of its immediate neighborhood and of generational differences in the reputation of the original restaurant. Most amusing is the retort aimed at someone who dared call Locke-Ober's clientele stuffy: "Go eat at Taco Bell!" So opinions varied; we certainly will be avoiding the New England Boiled Dinner recipe on the page facing this scallop dish, putting us on the younger side of the divide.

Photo by my dad shows my rowing buddies and I getting out of the way of an earlier scallop delivery.

We found this dish to be as delicious as it is simple. Starting with fresh New Bedford scallops from Kyler's Catch, I dredged them in flour (shaking off excess, as advised), and placed them in hot oil. The recipe calls for a cast-iron pan, which I should have used. I was not sure the one available was big enough, though, so I used the enamel skillet to pretty good effect.

Once the scallops were browned on both sides, I removed them from the pan, poured off excess oil (I will simply use a lot less oil next time), and added butter, parsley, and fresh lemon juice. I whisked these together as the butter melted, and poured it over the scallops.

The recipe calls for 1/4-inch depth of cooking oil. I used less than that, and will use even less next time.

The result: delish!

Scallops in White Wine Sauce

We had a bit of old white wine in our refrigerator, that we neither wanted to drink, nor waste. Thankfully we have two cookbooks specifically for cooking with wine: W.I.N.O.S. (Women in Need of Sanity) and the itty bitty Cooking Poultry and Seafood with Wine by Bruce Carlson (the outside dimensions of this one are about the same as those of an index card).

So, for our almost-regular-fish-on-Thursday dinner we picked up some scallops from our favorite fishmonger in order to make the very first recipe found in Carlson's book which is simply called "Scallops in Sauce".

I made the following deviations from the recipe shown: 

• I did not use the Dry Sauterne the recipe calls for. I really have no idea what kind of wine it was, other than "white". 
• I most certainly did not use frozen scallops. We get ours fresh from the boat.
• Nor did I use canned mushrooms, fresh is always better.
• I did not have any marjoram at the beach house, so that was omitted.
• I also skipped the last step of putting the scallops and sauce, sprinkled with bread crumbs in a baking dish under the broiler. This was because everything was quite well cooked by the time James came back from rowing, having been stuck at the New Bedford bridge for 15 minutes. Instead, we simply served the scallops in their sauce over some fettuccine, which turned out to be a fine plan. 

Two People. Two Recipes. One Great Meal.

It took us two attempts to make this "Start of Summer" meal. Our first attempt was thwarted when we arrived at the fishmonger only to discover that they were out of scallops! We made a plan to be there when they opened on Saturday so as not to be disappointed a second time. James was in charge of the kabob-less Old Bay Scallops. Pam was the chef for the side dish - a tomato-pasta salad recipe from Mary Kay Andrews The Beach House Cookbook.

Being far from Maryland,
I could not find a real
 container of Old Bay.
 But I did find this juvenile
specimen, which
proved serviceable.

The side dish was simple enough. While the spaghetti was cooking I chopped some tomato and onion. The chopped tomato was placed in our row boat shaped salad and some olive oil. red wine vinegar, and salt and pepper were added. Next the chopped onion some baby arugula, and shaved Parmesan cheese went in. The cooked pasta was mixed in with everything and some additional shaved Parmesan was added to the top. A lovely cool salad for a very hot day.

James adds: Let's not underestimate the significance of Pam's second line above. This was no ordinary fishmonger -- this was Kyler's Catch, located at the head of the most important scallop harbor on planet Earth (or any other planet, as far as we know). When we found the scallop bin empty -- and its void status was confirmed -- we had no Plan B. We simply backed slowly away from the counter. So it was with some trepidation that we returned yesterday morning!

We did find the scallops, and used the Old Bay scallops recipe we had found on the McCormick web site last week. When we returned to Whaling House, I trimmed and rinsed them, while melting about a stick's worth of butter. To this I added a heaping helping of Old Bay -- about half of the miniature found above, far more than called for in the recipe, which trifles in fractional teaspoons. As if.

In place of the dried parsley, I used a generous heap of finely chopped fresh parsley. The most important departure, though, was that I eschewed skewers. Rather, I placed the scallops on a baking sheet and brushed them liberally with the butter mixture. I broiled them (not to close to the top) for 5 minutes. I then removed the tray, turned each scallop with tongs, and returned the tray for 2 more minutes. The key with scallops is not to over cook. These turned out perfectly, and as Pam notes above, they paired beautifully with the cool pasta she had prepared, and the even cooler Chardonnay from our favorite vineyard.

Lagniappe

The day after we enjoyed this meal, Pam found a remarkable article about the origins of Old Bay, the National Spice of Maryland. Among other things, the article is a reminder of the value of being a country that welcomes migrants in general and refugees in particular. Without asylum, Old Bay itself would be impossible!

Scallops and Broccoli

Our adult kid Harvey has become quite good at finding gifts for us that connect to our interests, such as rare nautical prints that are at once unfamiliar and immediately fitting for our home. They came through again this Christmas, with the Bruce Beck's 1989 Official Fulton Fish Market Cookbook.

This is our kind of cookbook -- rich in cultural context, in this case relating to the New York institution whose name appears on this cookbook and no other. The book also has sea-creature illustrations that relate to Harvey's own interest in animal-related illustration art.

With the famous scallops of New Bedford just a few blocks away, we decided -- as readers of this space know we often do -- to look for a new way to prepare these buttery mollusks. We have tried many variations on creme sauces, so I decided to try something a bit different. I found one of those recipes for which assembling the ingredient list gets the cook most of the way through the cooking process.

Click to enlarge

Since I was determined to serve this with Malbec and we did not have any white cooking wine open, I decided to substitute ginger brandy for the wine (this was whisked together with the salt and sugar in a small bowl). For the chili oil, of course, I used chipotle-infused olive oil from our friends at Lebherz. 

I do not exactly avoid broccoli recipes, but I tend to find something else when broccoli presents itself. Since the rest of the family was ready to embrace this healthy option, however, I did, too. I blanched the broccoli as instructed, meaning I put it in boiling water for just under a minute and then drained it and plunged it into cold water. I then left it in a colander until the rest was ready. The broccoli emerged crisp but not too crunchy -- just right for me!

I then heated plenty of salted water, to which I added the linguini once I had everything else prepared. I had never trimmed scallops in the way described here, but I will from now on. I then sauteed the scallops in oil for just a minute, then the broccoli for another couple before adding wine mixture. I then drained the linguine and tossed it with the scallop mixture; we did not add soy sauce at the table as suggested, and we did not miss it.

This was delicious, and on the light side since it had no cheese or butter. It was scrumptious as leftovers.

Scallops with Cream and Basil

This simple yet divine dish from the New York Times Cooking page is sure to be added to our regular line up. I actually made this well over a week ago, but just haven't gotten around to writing the blog post about it.

Living near the ocean we made a decision some years ago that any time we wanted seafood we would get it fresh (the exception to this rule is that we always keep canned tuna on hand for quick, simple salads). The scallops came from our favorite fishmonger Kyler's Catch Seafood Market.  I followed the recipe as written with one exception which was skipping the part that says to cool the pan and wipe it out after browning the scallops and before cooking the rest of the ingredients in the same pan, it seemed unnecessary since the scallops were going to go back into the pan at the end anyway. Clearly this was the right choice since this was delicious.

Busy Kitchen

Monday morning was spent dodging (not very effectively) downpours as we went into Boston for errands, mainly the provision of a travel visa for our daughter's upcoming service trip to China. The late afternoon found me in the kitchen juggling (somewhat effectively) three little projects.

I began with a slight variation on a very familiar recipe -- a smoked pepper dip for a small gathering on Tuesday. It is a perennial crowd-pleaser that calls for roasted red peppers and commercial salsa. I always try to use a chipotle salsa -- usually from Trader Joe's -- supplying even more roasted peppers. This time I used Arriba! Fire-Roasted Mexican Chipotle Salsa, available at my local grocery, and decided to roast the additional peppers myself.

I had been intimidated by this process for years -- which is why I have not yet made my own mole from scratch -- but tried it a couple of times in the past year or so, and I am now fairly confident putting an entire bell directly on the front (super) burner of our stove. The keys are, I think, to turn the peppers frequently and to be unafraid to char them quite thoroughly. In this case, I roasted one bell pepper and one jalapeño, giving the dish a bit of extra piquancy.

A strange but important part of the roasting process is the sweating -- the peppers go into a sealed bag for about ten minutes, after which it is a simple matter to remove the vast majority of the charred patches of outer skin.

(UPDATE, January 2019: since writing this, I have learned that I can sweat the peppers just as effectively -- and with less mess -- in any very small covered dish.)

The resulting dip was delicious -- a few test bites had to be taken -- probably one of the best I have made -- and I have made this dish at least 100 times. It can be served either warm or cold; since I was almost a day ahead, I set it aside to cool and then turned my attention to brewing some raspberry whitbeer -- my first foray into fruit-flavored beer. I am still a novice brewer, but competent enough to keep the kitchen relatively clean while progressing through the various steps required to create wort (unfermented beer) and get it set up for initial fermentation. Once I was done with steeping the grains and adding the malt, hops and spices (a first for me), I put the whole shebang in sink full of ice water to chill it for the final step.

Because it was starting to get late (by our early-bird dinner standards) I decided that I could continue brewing and still get started on our dinner, which was made possible by two things we had picked up on Sunday. The first was one of those little recipe books from the grocery store. We had gotten rid of many of these when we cleaned up the cookbook cabinet a few months ago, but could not resist one entitled Cooking with Beer. Pam had thumbed through the booklet as I drove us to Fresh Catch in Mansfield, and we settled on an intriguing recipe involving sea scallops.

The recipe called for hoisin sauce -- which we had never used -- and other ingredients that we already had on hand. I made one unusual error. I did not notice that the recipe called for drained beans, so when I blended the beans with a few other ingredients for a sauce, I did not realize that it was way to thin. Ordinarily, I would just keep cooking to reduce the sauce, but it was far too thin, and sufficient cooking to reduce the sauce would have overcooked the scallops. Fortunately, Pam suggested corn starch as a compromise, and it worked fairly well.

The scallops went beautifully with an Argentine Malbec called Loca Linda (I called this "Pretty Crazy" but the company prefers "Crazy Beautiful"), which we purchased at currentVintage, a dress shop on Nantucket that is also one of our favorite wine stores.

After dinner, I pitched a little yeast into the wort, gave it a stir, and covered it with a lid and airlock. As I write this just over 24 hours later, the dip is mostly gone (a crowd-pleaser for the small crowd we entertained this evening), the scallops are a scrumptious memory, and the beer is fermenting in the next room, bubbling up about twice each minute to assure me that the yeast are now working overtime!

A Special Birthday Dinner

or: Dinner from the Dairy Section

The whole recipe is here --
Click to enlarge

For today's post, we include a photo of the entire recipe, because instructions provided by Mr. Price are succinct to the point of being, well, cryptic. (Get it?) Describing the directions would require more words from me than are in the original. That said, I invite the reader to click the image to enlarge it, and to consider my caveats.

I understand the importance of taking care not to overcook seafood, but two minutes was not nearly enough time to cook 1.5 pounds of scallops in a half cup of Vermouth. I covered the pan and cooked for about six minutes.

I followed the rest of the instructions before realizing that I had failed to notice the "very hot oven" comment at the end. So I turned it to 350 and put everything in an oven-safe dish for about 10 minutes. In retrospect, I would shorten the boiling slightly and have that oven at something like 400 for 5 minutes.

Details aside, the important thing to know is that this was delicious! Careful readers of this blog will know that we have are hugely devoted to the New Bedford scallop harvest -- doing our part to support sustainable fisheries and the local economy. Scallops in this sauce are even more delicious -- and decadent -- than scallops wrapped in bacon.

Even better the second day, heated for about 30 minutes at 375.

For technical reasons that only iPad-using bloggers would care about, Pam put the title on this post because it was indeed a special dinner and it was indeed her birthday. The Vincent Price cookbook was my weeks-early birthday present to her, and it was good to use it again on her actual birthday. Even better, our daughter was able to join us. Since she is a vegetarian, I made fettucine alfredo with peas as an entree for her and a side dish for us.

For the dessert was one of Pam's favorites: key-lime pie. Specifically, it was Paula Dean's Frozen Key-Lime pie, which Pam made to celebrate Florida day back in 2010. It was at least as delicious as we remembered it.

Pam gave us both a birthday present by choosing not only the main course, but also the dessert. Cooking is usually no work at all for me, but I sometimes struggle to choose a menu. With the dessert and main course chosen, I chose alfredo as a compatible, but in fact it might be better described as redundant. Hence the subtitle I placed at the top of this post. I thought of it because I found myself buying one each of just about everything in the dairy case to make this meal. Good thing we have plenty of biking, walking, and rowing this weekend!

Salmon in cream sauce with tomatoes

We do love our fresh scallops from Kyler's Catch Seafood. Usually James is in charge of cooking them, but I gave it a try last week with this lovely recipe from the New York Times Cooking page. James demonstrated to me how to remove the "foot" (a chewy muscle) from each scallop before cleaning.

I started by sauteeing the onion in butter in our indispensable cast-iron skillet, and then added the seasonings. Fresh chopped tomatoes procured from the Fairhaven Farmer's Market were added. These cooked for about 8-9 more minutes. Next I added some white wine and cooked for about 5 more minutes then added Worcestershire sauce and heavy cream. I continued to cook until it thickened. Scallops were added last and cooked for about 5 more minutes.

This fairly easy, although it did require a bit of stirring and watching. Scallops can be easily overdone and then become too chewy.

Sweet & Sour Scallops

Frequent readers of this space may recall that we were introduced to the world of infused olive oils and vinegars in essentially the same way we were introduced to each other. That is, our UMBC alumni magazine introduced us to Lebherz Oil & Vinegar Emporium in Frederick, Maryland shortly after it was opened by a fellow graduate, and shortly after we launched this blog. A quick keyword search reveals that we frequently turn to L.O.V.E. for inspiration.

While we still visit that original shop whenever we are in the area, we were pleased to see a similar purveyor open much closer to home Ripe from the Vine in Marion, Massachusetts. When visiting this weekend, Pam bought two large bottles of chipotle olive oil, leading the proprietor to ask if we had tried this in combination with pineapple -- on scallops!

An unexpected combination that we will
be trying in other dishes.

We were on the way to Kyler's Catch at the time, with the intention of making Vincent Price's scallops Sauté Meunière to share with Pam's visiting sister. During the car ride, we figured out that I could cook the dish in exactly the same manner, but using chipotle-infused oil and butter for the sauté stage and the pineapple-infused vinegar with white wine in the deglazing stage (instead of lemon juice). We picked up that white wine on the way to the fish monger -- Löss & Lehm Grüner Veltliner from our friends at Stevie's in Fairhaven.

The result: scrumptious, even decadent, and pairing well with the wine I used in the deglazing.

I confess to taking a big shortcut on sides, in part because I am trying to baby an injured left knee. So those are just what they look like: canned cranberries from our local growers cooperative (aka Ocean Spray) and slightly enhanced Annie's mac & cheese. 

Lagniappe

Lebherz introduced us to the idea of flavored vinegars as a topping for ice cream. I fully intend to try this one on a coconut dessert this summer!

Birthday Scallops

Careful readers of this blog will know that on our birthdays, Hayes-Bohs get whatever they want for dinner and dessert. Or pretty close to it. They will also know that throughout the year, our culinary choices are increasingly influenced by the National Day Calendar. Pam's birthday dinner this year was a result of a confluence of these tendencies, though with a fairly flexible application of the calendar.

A couple weeks before the blessed event, Pam noticed that May 16 is National Coquilles Saint Jacques Day. Because it fell on a weekend this year and she noticed it ahead of time, we seriously thought about celebrating this heretofore unknown holiday on its actual date. But the recipe highlighted on the National Day site seemed a bit complicated and more worthy of a birthday celebration.

Bonus: waiting also meant that our visiting son could both be part of the celebration and part of the brain power needed to overcome one challenge we faced: this appetizer (or appetizer-as-meal in our case) is traditionally served on a scallop shell. I hoped our local fishmonger might have them -- as it is located in one of the world's premiere scallop-landing harbors -- but no such luck. Way too late in the planning, I realized that I could get scallop plates online. 

In progress but not in focus -- note
Harvey's skillful potato piping

Here is where our Harvey's creativity came in: the recipe calls for piping mashed potatoes around the edge of the shells, like icing at the edge of a cake. We could therefore use potatoes as the base of this appetizer. We essentially created a seafood version of twice-baked potatoes, following the recipe above to a tee, except that we began by slicing and partly baking potatoes, scooping them out, and then using that for an edge that our artist was able to create using his mad dexterity. He also rightly suggested brushing with olive oil and dusting with paprika before the broiling stage.

Grey-on-gray food made a bit more
photogenic by salad and cool nautical
pepper shaker

While I followed the rest of the recipe carefully in terms of ingredients, I did not do so in terms of sequence. I thought the sauce would take longer than the bouillon and the potatoes longer than either of these, so I did things in an awkward order this really complicated what should have been a very basic white sauce. If I follow this recipe again, I would still start the potatoes early, but I would complete the  bouillon starting the sauce.

Image: Holy Art

On May 16 next year, however, I will be prepared in two ways. First, I will have purchased the correct plates, harvested in the British Isles. Second, curious about the word "coquille" I found out that it means any appetizer of this sort involving a wine and cream sauce. I found several other recipes that do not involve potatoes, and I think they will be easier.  One of those recipes is in Scallops: A New England Coastal Cookbook, which also includes some remarkable information about the natural history of bay scallops. Incidentally, this was my first time cooking with bays -- I had always been intimidated.

DESSERT

We musn't forget dessert! Key lime pie is usually Pam's first choice and I have often managed to make a decent one including, apparently, in May 2017. (For the record, she has been to Key West just once; I have not yet gotten to any of the Florida Keys.)

For this year, however, enter another hero: we won a pair of key lime pies in our church auction, offered by McKayla, a fellow church member, my former student, and (most importantly for this post) a Florida native. Prepared and delivered with care the day before, it was PERFECT.

Lagniappe: That Saint

The adjectival form of James is Jacobian, and my name means "usurper" after Esau's greedy brother Jacob. So the conflation of Saint James and Saint Jacques are familiar to me. What was not familiar is the identity of St. James as the patron of scallopers -- he is sometimes depicted with shells around his neck and Crusaders sometimes adorned themselves with the shells as well. 

Salmon a la Pamela almondine

We recently discovered that our favorite fishmonger (Kyler's Catch) was indeed open. We should have known since the place has always been impeccably clean. They have done everything right in order to keep the retail side of their business going: masks for employees, sneeze guards, and chairs spaced six feet apart for waiting. It is also still impeccably clean. James donned his own mask and went over on Friday evening and brought back salmon and scallops. I was in charge of preparing the salmon on Friday, and he made dinner with the scallops on Saturday.

I poached the salmon in some leftover Malbec we had in the beach house refrigerator from the previous weekend. I also added some orange slices to pan. Meanwhile, I toasted some sliced almonds in some butter and honey. Once the salmon was cooked I divided it onto our plates and topped them with the almonds. Mashed potatoes made for a dandy side dish and a garnish of orange wedges completed the meal.

I had no recipe for this. I put it together with ingredients we already had. We both enjoyed the meal and will likely make it again, that is if we ever have leftover wine again. Once a bottle gets uncorked at our house it is unlikely to get re-corked. The only reason we had some in this case was because last Sunday we opened a second bottle. Fortunately, we also had a full bottle of the same wine to drink with the meal.

James wore this special nautical-themed face mask for his trip to the fish monger

Vermouth No Gin

Click to enlarge

When planning for this evening's dinner, Pam suggested I turn to W.I.N.O.S. (Women in Need of Sanity) Cook With Wine, which she had picked up when she joined me for a conference in Quebec recently. This fun, out-of-print title is no longer available from the W.I.N.O.S. web site, and Amazon offers it only through a third-party seller, at a price that I think is a bit higher than what Pam paid at a small, independent bookshop in Sherbrooke.

The extreme whimsy of Jesseph's work -- from the title to the smiley face next to all of the wines listed as ingredients -- belies the quality of the work. The recipe I chose (above) is well-written (except for the lime-lemon confusion), succinct, and easy to prepare.

I chose the Vermouth Chicken Scallopine because we still had part of a bottle of vermouth in the fridge, with no gin nor any interest in martinis. At first glance, we thought this recipe might be an excuse (always welcome) to pick up scallops from the world-renowned scallopers in our neighborhood, but in this case the word simply means "thin slice" in Italian.

I followed the recipe as written, except that I was able to skip the malletting because the chicken I purchased was already thin -- either sliced or smashed, I am not sure which. Because the chicken breasts were already prepared and were thin enough to cook quickly, this dish took only about 20 minutes to prepare. Anticipating that it would be quick, I had put some diced potatoes and sweet potatoes -- tossed with olive oil and seasoned with Old Bay and other spices -- in the oven about a half hour ahead. The combination was quite pleasing, and as Pam noted, the presentation was quite nice.

We enjoyed these dishes with a Pinot Noir, rather than a vermouth-based drink.

Sicilian Seafood Stew

This one comes from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home a vegetarian cookbook that includes some fish recipes, too. This recipe has scallops and shrimp, and is rife with vegetables as well. Most of the recipes in this book are intended to be cooked in 30 minutes or less. This one is an exception. The cooking time is a bit over half an hour, and the prep time adds about 15-20 minutes more. It is quite tasty though, and makes for dandy leftovers. Normally we would opt for a white wine with seafood, and indeed had thought ahead and chilled a bottle of Chardonnay intending to have it with the meal, but I'd forgotten that the recipe calls for red wine to be added to the stew, and we learned some time ago that when cooking with wine the same wine that's added to the dish should be also served, so we saved the Chardonnay to have with our roast chicken the next day and paired the stew with the Malbec I used. 

Is Cheese a Vegetable?

It may not be difficult to believe that I have already returned to our new super-market-checkout booklet Cooking with Beer, not even week after the terrific scallops-with-stout dish that was part of a recent very busy evening in our kitchen. Although the photo looks like mush, Pam and I were both pleased to notice Cerveza Chicken Enchilada Casserole on our first perusal. The result was a genuine guilty pleasure with Tex-Mex roots.

At the very beginning I altered the recipe slightly. It calls for small amounts of carrot and celery, but we had frozen tri-color bell peppers on hand, suggesting a substitution that would be both thrifty and more fitting. When we repeat this dish -- which clearly we will want to -- I will use bell peppers again, but also some hotter peppers. This dish is scrumptious except for a lack of piquancy.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I brought one cup of Mexican beer and two cups of water to a boil, along with the veggies, a dash of salt, and the juice of one lime. I then added two chicken breasts and cooked through -- about 12 minutes. I forgot to let it cool before shredding the chicken -- in the pan -- with two forks.

Then I began to assemble the dish; the recipe calls for doing this in three rounds in a slow cooker, but it was getting close to dinner, so I used a casserole dish and just two rounds, each like this:

half a 10-ounce can of enchilada sauce -- half a 9-ounce bag of tortilla chips -- half the chicken mix -- a bit of chopped onion -- shredded cheddar cheese

REPEAT, then pour the rest of the bottle of beer over the whole thing.

The recipe mentions 3 cups of cheese, but I think I did a bit more. It calls for 4-5 hours in a crock pot, but I cooked at 350 in a convection oven for about 30 minutes, then cooled to 325 for about 15 minutes more. Crispy on the edges, bubbly on top, and delicious all over!

Perfect pairing for this dish, of course, is beer, Mexican if possible but our home-brewed English ale worked just fine. This dish makes particularly good leftovers, either heated through in the oven or microwaved in small batches.

Scallops with Lemon-Basil Sauce

This one showed up on my Facebook feed over the weekend. Since we were at our beach house and, therefore, near our fishmonger, and because basil is my favorite herb, we decided to try it immediately. The FB post had a video with it that made it look super simple, and the written instructions said the prep time was only 3 minutes (with a cook time of twelve) so it seemed like it would be an easy weekend dish. Overall, I would say it was, although the prep time was longer than indicated, and it made a way bigger mess than it did in the video. There were a lot of dishes to wash afterwards as well. It was quite delicious though, and will be worth making again. It also made for fabulous leftovers. Find the written recipe here. I followed the recipe as presented, except I used fettuccine instead of angel hair pasta.