The Art of Preparing Scallops: A Culinary Journey

As I begin my culinary journey, I find myself pondering the art of preparing scallops. Specifically, I'm looking for the side muscle and pulling those off to add them to a dish that's sure to delight - a scallop seviche recipe. My feline friends adore these tender morsels, and I do too. Having had a lisp in the past, I must admit I'm sensitive about it, but it's cute how my cats enjoy their scallops. The anatomy of scallops is quite fascinating - they have a top side and a bottom side, with the former being the part that slants forward and the latter being flat.

To prepare these delicate creatures, I'll set aside two lemons for juicing and one for segmenting. As I work on extracting the segments, I'm aware of the importance of removing the peel and pith - those bitter white parts beneath the skin. Using a sharp knife, I carefully cut along the natural walls of the citrus segments, working my way around the inner sides to release the pieces from their natural confines. These lemon segments will soon be incorporated into the sauce known as Grenada sauce, which boasts a rich history and a dash of French flair.

The sauce itself is composed of chives, parsley, or basil - all excellent choices for adding freshness to this culinary creation. I choose to proceed with the chives, but feel free to substitute with your preferred herb if you're not fond of their pungent flavor. To complete the sauce, a pinch of salt and pepper are essential; however, I'm going to add both sides of my scallops, reserving seasoning for right before cooking.

To prepare my scallops for this dish, I'll utilize a stainless steel skillet set over medium-high heat. A small amount of vegetable oil will suffice, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan and prevent sticking. As I carefully position the scallops in the pan, one side facing downwards - the top side, with its angled slant, will be the first to make contact with the sizzling surface. With a gentle touch, the scallop is allowed to sear, developing that golden-brown crust that adds such depth to this dish.

As I observe my scallops cooking, I'm mindful of not overcrowding the pan and ensuring each piece receives an equal amount of attention. The anticipation builds as the first side reaches the desired level of browning - a moment when the scallop begins to cook through, its opaque flesh gradually turning a translucent hue. With tongs in hand, I delicately flip the scallops, allowing them to finish cooking while retaining that golden crust.

The pièce de résistance is now at hand: the pan sauce. To create this rich and creamy emulsion, I'll carefully add three tablespoons of butter - using the fourth for added flair, as we want to maintain a delicate balance between fat and acidity. The pan's surface will be gently scraped with a spatula, coaxing those golden brown bits into dissolution. As the sauce reduces slightly, its flavors meld together in harmony.

To complete this gastronomic experience, I'll add two teaspoons of capers - drained, as per the recipe - along with the sautéed chives and lemon segments that will now be fully incorporated into the sauce. The result is a culinary masterpiece: a richly flavored emulsion that showcases the delicate beauty of scallops. To finish my dish, I'll carefully plate my seared scallops and serve alongside this creamy, flavorful sauce.

The presentation is crucial; as such, it's essential to ensure the scallop's first side faces upwards - its golden-brown crust now glistening in the light. With a delicate touch, I place a portion of the emulsified sauce atop each scallop, allowing its flavors to meld with the tender flesh. The result is nothing short of breathtaking: a symphony of textures and tastes that will leave even the most discerning palates singing.

And so, as we conclude this culinary journey, remember - when preparing scallops, patience and attention are paramount. By carefully observing each stage of their preparation, from searing to sauce-making, you'll find yourself rewarded with an unparalleled gastronomic experience that will leave your senses begging for more. Bon appétit!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthey're you skies Brad in the background all right so just get the comments out of the way right up in front the videos with me Carla fettuccine here in the bone Appetit Test Kitchen lovely you know I was taking notes on this recipe earlier and I was like seared scallop seared scallops seared scallops I have an eight-year-old child with a lisp so I just kept hearing it in his voice which would be seared scallops so that's what we're gonna make today seared scallops I loved making this recipe because if you are wanting to learn how to be better at pan roasting or searing scallops is such a perfect thing to practice on because they're small and they cook really quickly and they're very easy to get a really good crust on that nice seared scallop crunchy crusty brown delicious exterior like having a great sear before you get to cook anything though you have to go shopping for your scallops and very super critical important you cannot make this recipe with anything except dry scallops okay that doesn't mean that they're dry it means that they have not been soaked in a liquid preservative so look for wild or dayboat because if they're not they're not gonna work you're gonna be very disappointed waste of money the next thing you need to do is kind of go over the scallops some of them will have this and some of them won't but you're looking for the side muscle and you pull those off a funny story I give those to my cats they love them scallop seviche scallop seviche I used to have a lisp also so I'm a little sensitive about it but it's cute scallops have a top side and a bottom side and you can see it's like the way that it slants forward is the top side and the bottom side is flat okay so that's done I'm gonna set those aside so two lemons are getting juiced and one lemon is getting segmented so I'm just following the shape of the lemon and taking off the peel and the piste the pith is that white part right underneath the peel that is bitter and unpleasant there's little walls of the citrus segment right and so what you're going to do is you're going to use the tip of your sharp knife in between and going on one side on the inner side and then the other so all of these pieces of the lemon are going to go into the sauce this sauce is called sauce Grenaa blahs which is with my terrible French accent just means it was invented by some dude in the town of Grenoble hand full of chives if you don't like chives use parsley if you don't like parsley I guess you could do this with basil that would be nice all right so like all good things plenty of salt and pepper but I am gonna do both sides of the scallops and you really want to wait until right before you're ready to cook to season the scallops stainless steel skillet stainless steel skillet over medium-high I'm going to add a little bit of just regular vegetable oil to the pan so just enough to coat the bottom with like a little bit of extra and I'm going with that the side that I showed you guys that was the top side is the first side down so it's like presentation side down and that's just gonna be the prettier side of the scallop with all searing basically the first side down is gonna get the really nice golden-brown sear and the second side it kind of doesn't matter what you do it's never gonna get as brown and that's okay and I'm just trying not to crowd the pan but getting them all in there until you are assured that you have a really nice dark brown crust formed on the bottom don't throw these things around you're not sauteing the scallops let them be and you can see there is a little bit of smoke getting thrown off I'm going to add just a tiny bit of oil and if it's really dark golden brown on the edge then you can be pretty confident that it's going to be dark golden brown on the surface as well the other thing you can observe when you're looking on this side is that the scallop is gonna start to cook through and that's true for any protein all right so I feel confident and I'm just using a pair of tongs to turn these over and I feel pretty good about my fear see how nobody is sticking because they have the good crust all right now that they're on their second side I'm just really sliding them off the heat now to finish cooking a little bit more gently so if you've ever made a braised or deglaze Japan which we're about to do you're familiar with the brown bits and those are like this is just super concentrated flavor so I don't want to waste that and I don't want to burn it but see nice and golden brown three tablespoons of butter I'm gonna go a little bit lower on my heat so now we're starting the pan sauce no I feel like using the fourth tablespoon so I'm going to stirring and scraping up the brown bits and these are gonna dissolve back into the sauce the important thing is that you're scraping against the surface of the pan to really get all those pieces up brown butter is what's happening here brown butter has like just a more developed flavor the lactic acid starts to come out you get like nuttiness and sweetness and it isn't just pure fat lemon juice lemon segments and I want this to reduce just a little bit so just stirring my patented pull the pan back and forth while you stir around in a circle and you didn't see a lot of the lemon segments did break up as predicted two teaspoons of capers oh they're supposed to be drained so now they're drains and go the chives and you can tell that the sauce is emulsified because it looks shiny and creamy and homogeneous which someone recently told me people don't know what that means I think everybody knows what homogenous is homogenized milk not separated okay saucing of the scallops so we have this incredibly beautiful emulsified sauce grant applause yeah I'm just get you the scalp hmm all right people go sear some scallops seriouslythey're you skies Brad in the background all right so just get the comments out of the way right up in front the videos with me Carla fettuccine here in the bone Appetit Test Kitchen lovely you know I was taking notes on this recipe earlier and I was like seared scallop seared scallops seared scallops I have an eight-year-old child with a lisp so I just kept hearing it in his voice which would be seared scallops so that's what we're gonna make today seared scallops I loved making this recipe because if you are wanting to learn how to be better at pan roasting or searing scallops is such a perfect thing to practice on because they're small and they cook really quickly and they're very easy to get a really good crust on that nice seared scallop crunchy crusty brown delicious exterior like having a great sear before you get to cook anything though you have to go shopping for your scallops and very super critical important you cannot make this recipe with anything except dry scallops okay that doesn't mean that they're dry it means that they have not been soaked in a liquid preservative so look for wild or dayboat because if they're not they're not gonna work you're gonna be very disappointed waste of money the next thing you need to do is kind of go over the scallops some of them will have this and some of them won't but you're looking for the side muscle and you pull those off a funny story I give those to my cats they love them scallop seviche scallop seviche I used to have a lisp also so I'm a little sensitive about it but it's cute scallops have a top side and a bottom side and you can see it's like the way that it slants forward is the top side and the bottom side is flat okay so that's done I'm gonna set those aside so two lemons are getting juiced and one lemon is getting segmented so I'm just following the shape of the lemon and taking off the peel and the piste the pith is that white part right underneath the peel that is bitter and unpleasant there's little walls of the citrus segment right and so what you're going to do is you're going to use the tip of your sharp knife in between and going on one side on the inner side and then the other so all of these pieces of the lemon are going to go into the sauce this sauce is called sauce Grenaa blahs which is with my terrible French accent just means it was invented by some dude in the town of Grenoble hand full of chives if you don't like chives use parsley if you don't like parsley I guess you could do this with basil that would be nice all right so like all good things plenty of salt and pepper but I am gonna do both sides of the scallops and you really want to wait until right before you're ready to cook to season the scallops stainless steel skillet stainless steel skillet over medium-high I'm going to add a little bit of just regular vegetable oil to the pan so just enough to coat the bottom with like a little bit of extra and I'm going with that the side that I showed you guys that was the top side is the first side down so it's like presentation side down and that's just gonna be the prettier side of the scallop with all searing basically the first side down is gonna get the really nice golden-brown sear and the second side it kind of doesn't matter what you do it's never gonna get as brown and that's okay and I'm just trying not to crowd the pan but getting them all in there until you are assured that you have a really nice dark brown crust formed on the bottom don't throw these things around you're not sauteing the scallops let them be and you can see there is a little bit of smoke getting thrown off I'm going to add just a tiny bit of oil and if it's really dark golden brown on the edge then you can be pretty confident that it's going to be dark golden brown on the surface as well the other thing you can observe when you're looking on this side is that the scallop is gonna start to cook through and that's true for any protein all right so I feel confident and I'm just using a pair of tongs to turn these over and I feel pretty good about my fear see how nobody is sticking because they have the good crust all right now that they're on their second side I'm just really sliding them off the heat now to finish cooking a little bit more gently so if you've ever made a braised or deglaze Japan which we're about to do you're familiar with the brown bits and those are like this is just super concentrated flavor so I don't want to waste that and I don't want to burn it but see nice and golden brown three tablespoons of butter I'm gonna go a little bit lower on my heat so now we're starting the pan sauce no I feel like using the fourth tablespoon so I'm going to stirring and scraping up the brown bits and these are gonna dissolve back into the sauce the important thing is that you're scraping against the surface of the pan to really get all those pieces up brown butter is what's happening here brown butter has like just a more developed flavor the lactic acid starts to come out you get like nuttiness and sweetness and it isn't just pure fat lemon juice lemon segments and I want this to reduce just a little bit so just stirring my patented pull the pan back and forth while you stir around in a circle and you didn't see a lot of the lemon segments did break up as predicted two teaspoons of capers oh they're supposed to be drained so now they're drains and go the chives and you can tell that the sauce is emulsified because it looks shiny and creamy and homogeneous which someone recently told me people don't know what that means I think everybody knows what homogenous is homogenized milk not separated okay saucing of the scallops so we have this incredibly beautiful emulsified sauce grant applause yeah I'm just get you the scalp hmm all right people go sear some scallops seriously\n"