Once you've mastered the art of getting them out of their shells, scallops willbecome a dinner-party favourite – especially when served with crispy pancetta
TEACHING people how to handle scallops is always a pleasure. That's because, almost without fail, people arrive at the Cook School wary of shucking and cooking scallops. But, just as surely, they end the day thrilled with their success. As you will b
e, with this dish of seared scallops, black pudding, salad and crispy pancetta. Good-quality produce is the crucial factor here. The black pudding is easy: we use Charles MacLeod's Stornoway version, and it's delicious. The trickier part is picking your scallops. First, ask the fishmonger for hand-dived king scallops – queens are too small. And second, make sure they're fresh.
The only way to guarantee the freshness of scallops is to buy them alive in their shells and shuck them at home. Any fishmonger worth his salt will order some for you. Many hand-caught scallops are shucked straight away and then soaked in water, which they absorb like little sponges, before being sold by weight. Once in the frying pan, they pop and squeak like cheap bacon as the water leaks out.
You can find out how to shuck scallops in the Critical Points section – once you've got the hang of the technique, you will never look back, I promise. The only other technical point is cooking them, which, as with all successful frying, is about making sure you've got a happy pan.
This is an excellent scallop recipe for a beginner to start with because it's very straightforward, takes minutes to make and has that tried-and-tested harmony of sweet, succulent scallops and crispy, salty pork, which will always be a dinner-party winner. Throw in the rich black pudding and the lovely lemony salad for good measure and you'll have another round of happy guests.
SEARED SCALLOPS with BLACK PUDDING, SALAD and CRISPY PANCETTA
Serves four
10 hand-dived king scallops, in their shells
8 slices pancetta
sunflower oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 slices Stornoway black pudding
20ml extra-virgin olive oil
150g mixed organic salad leaves – such as rocket, lamb's lettuce and mizuna
20g picked herbs – such as flat-leaf parsley, dill and coriander
Maldon sea salt
freshly milled black pepper
4 tbsp crème fraîche
The first thing to do is shuck your scallops – see the Critical Points below for guidance. Once you've mastered the technique, you'll be able to do this while the pancetta is cooking.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Lay the slices of pancetta on a tray lined with baking parchment and pop them into the oven to cook until crisp. Remove the tray from the oven, leaving the heat on.
Next, heat a griddle pan on the hob. Place your hand just over it – when you feel a good ambient heat, you know it's ready. Brush the scallops with a little sunflower oil and a little of the clear fat from the pancetta tray.
Place four oiled scallops on the hot griddle pan and sprinkle them with a couple of grains of sea salt and a small squeeze of lemon. Cook for a minute, then, using tongs, rotate them through 90 degrees and leave for another minute, so that you end up with a criss-cross pattern from the griddle pan on each scallop. Turn them over and repeat the process to give a total cooking time of four minutes.
Remove the scallops to a warm tray and cook the second batch. (The remaining two are there in case you have any mishaps during the shucking process. If all went well you'll have two bonus scallops!)
Once all the scallops are ready, remove them to the warm tray. Reheat the pan. Remove the skin from the black pudding slices, brush each one with oil and then cook for a minute or two on each side.
When you are just about ready to eat, mix about 5ml of the lemon juice with the olive oil in a bowl and toss the leaves and herbs in a little of this dressing. Pass the tray of scallops and black pudding through the oven for one minute at the most to warm through.
Take four warm (not hot) plates and place a slice of black pudding in the centre of each. Place two scallops on top, followed by a couple of slices of crispy pancetta and a pile of dressed salad leaves.
Stir the crème fraîche and run a little off the tip of a teaspoon around each plate. Drizzle around a little more of the salad dressing and then serve immediately.
Critical points
First things first: give the scallop shells a tap to make sure they're alive. They will start to close up if they're alive, so mind your fingers as they're pretty strong. Make sure you give them a good sniff too. You want a lovely sea-breeze smell; discard any with a fishy pong.
To open the scallop, grip the shell, holding the hinged end at the join of your thumb and forefinger. Insert the knife into the side of the shell, close to the flat hinge, where there is a natural gap. Press the knife against the inside of the flat shell, and sweep the blade across from top to bottom – you will feel it cutting through the muscle that holds the shell in place. Open the flat shell back and twist it off.
Hold the shell flat in your palm with the flat hinge edge parallel to your thumb. Use a spoon to loosen the contents of the shell.
Lift the contents, holding the part that was previously connecting the scallop to the shell in your left hand, and use the end of a spoon (or your thumb) to run back and forth to break the connection with the white muscle – the part you want to eat.
Once it's loosened, you will be able to push the white meat up with your thumbs, which will pop the meat out of its skirt. Pull away the skirt and the rest of the debris with one hand, leaving the white meat in your other hand.
Finally, place the white scallop meat in a bowl while you shuck the others. Wash the meat for no more than 30 seconds and store on an absorbent cloth or paper. The frills can be discarded or well washed under running water to remove the slime, then frozen for use in stock.
