Sunday, July 4, 2010

Cookbook challenge, week 33: Scallops with a crisp crust

The theme for week 33 is seafood and I decided to use scallops as they are something I haven't really eaten much, or cooked with at all. The recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 tbs plain flour
1 tbs polenta
1/2 tbs cornflour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
olive oil
8 scallops, cleaned (I left the roe on)
1/4 cup buttermilk

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Heat a frypan with 1cm oil
Dip the scallops in the milk then roll in the flour mixture.
Cook in the oil until lightly browned on each side.

The recipe serves them with a parsley and lemon butter and salad, but we just enjoyed them with some Japanese mayonnaise. It was a very easy recipe, and I am happy that my first foray into scallops worked! The only odd detail about this recipe is that because they are dipped into the liquid then flour the batter does not stick to the scallops very well at all, and I had to handle them quite gently to avoid the batter falling off. Usually when battering things like this, recipes specify to dip them in flour then liquid then flour/crumb again. If I make these again I'll think try it that way instead to compare the results.

scallops

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