The market · Fish and seafood
Scallops
The sweetest of the bivalves: a fat, round muscle, often with its coral roe, that caramelises deeply in a hot pan and stays translucent in the middle.
sweet · rich · briny
What to do with it
Kinds
- Hand-dived king scallops
- Picked by divers; cleaner, less sandy, and kinder to the seabed than dredged.
- Queenies
- Small queen scallops — a quick sear, or grilled in the shell.
- Dry, not wet
- 'Wet' scallops are soaked in phosphate to add weight, and won't brown. Ask for dry, or buy them in the shell.
Goes with
Knowing it
- Where to buy
- In the shell and alive if you can — shut, or closing when tapped. Shucked, they should be ivory, not bright white and sitting in milky liquid.
- Worth knowing
- Pat them very dry, salt just before cooking, and sear in a smoking pan with a little oil for 60–90 seconds a side, adding butter at the end. Cook the roe separately, or dry it in a low oven and grate it like bottarga.
Kitchens that keep it in
Galicia — Spain's green, rainy north-west corner, on the Atlantic above PortugalGalicianSpain's great seafood coast — octopus, mussels, scallops and barnacles — with a green, rainy inland of pork, turnip tops, soft cows' milk cheeses and pies baked to share.6 classicsNormandy — north-western France, along the Channel from the Seine to Mont-Saint-MichelNormanButter, cream, apples and the sea: orchards turned into cider and Calvados, pastures into Camembert and Livarot, and shellfish and sole from the Channel.9 classics
