Seared Scallops with Pan Sauce
Instructions:
Here’s the secret to simple and perfectly cooked scallops:
Brown them in a hot pan, remove, make a little sauce,
then return them to the pan just long enough to heat
through and coat with the sauce.
Other seafood you can use: shrimp, squid (cook them
for half the time), salmon or halibut (fillets or steaks), monkfish
cut crosswise into thick medallions, swordfish or
tuna steaks. (Increase the cooking time a bit for fish,
depending on the thickness of the cut.)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
About 11/2 pounds scallops, preferably sea or bay
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
MAKES: 4 servings
TIME: 15 minutes, more or less
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat for 3 or 4 minutes; add the butter and olive oil, garlic, and, 30 seconds later, the scallops, a few at a time if they’re big.
- Turn them as they brown, allowing about 2 minutes per side (less for scallops under an inch across, somewhat more for those well over an inch). Sprinkle them with salt and pepper as they cook; transfer them to a bowl as they finish.
- Add the lemon juice to the pan, scraping to remove any brown bits, and cook until the liquid is reduced to a glaze, 1 to 2 minutes. Return the scallops to the skillet, along with the chives, and stir to coat with the sauce and heat through, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve immediately
- Butter-Poached Scallops.
- In Step 1, heat the skillet over medium heat for just 2 minutes; use all butter and add the scallops all at once. Don’t brown the scallops; keep the heat at medium and cook them on both sides until opaque, 5 to 8 minutes total, depending on their size. In Step 2, add 1 teaspoon minced fresh tarragon leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon along with the lemon juice. Finish as directed, stirring in another teaspoon or two of butter with the scallops (omit the chives) and garnishing with chopped fresh chervil, tarragon (just a little), or parsley leaves.
- Seared Scallops with Cherry Tomatoes.
- Omit the lemon juice. Halve about 8 ounces cherry tomatoes. In Step 2, add the tomatoes to the pan and cook just long enough for them to wrinkle a bit and release their juice. Garnish with the chives or chopped fresh basil or mint leaves.
- Seared Scallops with Ginger.
- In Step 1, use peanut or neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn. Add 1 tablespoon minced or grated fresh ginger with the garlic. Add 3 chopped scallions to the skillet with the scallops. In Step 2, use a mixture of 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon dry sherry or white wine, and 2 tablespoons water or chicken, fish, or vegetable stock in place of the lemon juice. Finish with chives or some minced scallion and add salt and pepper if necessary.
- Seared Scallops with White Wine.
- Transfer the cooked scallops to a warm platter and turn the heat to high. Add 1 cup dry white wine to the pan (a really good one will not be wasted here) and cook, stirring and scraping the pan with a wooden spoon, until the wine is reduced by more than half and is syrupy and thick, about 3 minutes. Pour this over the scallops, garnish, and serve.
- Seared Coconut Curry Scallops.
- Use all butter or substitute neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, for the olive oil. As the scallops sear in Step 1, sprinkle them lightly with curry powder. In Step 2, before adding the lemon juice to the pan, stir in 1 teaspoon more of the curry and keep stirring for 15 seconds or so. Then add the lemon juice along with 1/2 cup coconut milk . Proceed with the recipe, garnishing with chopped fresh cilantro (or some toasted coconut) instead of the chives.
- Sesame-Crusted Seared Scallops.
- Use all butter or substitute neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, for the olive oil. Omit the lemon juice. Before cooking, put about 1/2 cup sesame seeds on a plate and coat both flat sides of the scallops in the seeds, pressing to make them stick. Proceed with the recipe, going easy on the salt as the scallops cook. In Step 2, add 1/4 cup soy sauce and 1/4 cup water to the pan instead of the lemon juice and cook until reduced to a glaze, a minute or two. Garnish with chopped scallion instead of the chives.