Coming from the Northeast, I’ve always been a bit picky about scallops. If they aren’t really fresh and sweet, I don’t think it worth my time to bother with them. I have been getting them, fresh, at Whole Foods, and, let me just say this: they are wonderful.
They are also a bit pricey, $25 per pound yielding about ten, admittedly large, scallops. And, Whole Foods is a bit of a trek for me so, when I came across a 13 ounce bag in the freezer case of my main market for about $13, I figured, why not?
Having tried, and been disappointed, with frozen scallops in the past, I opted to make my test run with the aid of a frozen Tom Yam soup and wontons from Trader Joe’s and an edamame and miso quinoa mix.
Note: if you’d like to try this without the frozen soup (which was very good), might I suggest this, home made Tom Kha Kai soup?
Also, skip the quinoa, I didn’t think this particular mix had much flavor.
INGREDIENTS
•13 oz thawed frozen sea scallops
•Whole milk
•Flour
•Vadouvan French Masala Curry Powder
•Sea salt
•Black Pepper
Heat your oven to 450º, transfer your thawed sea scallops to a bowl, and cover with fresh, cold milk.
Set aside to soak for about 30 minutes. I think that this milk soak is really the key to tasty scallops.
Line a baking pan with foil (or a bit of olive oil or butter, then remove the scallops from the milk, transfer to a paper towel lined plate (to absorb any excess milk, dust lightly with mebbe one or two tablespoons of flour, then season lightly with the sea salt, black pepper, and Vadouvan.
Note: I love the Vadouvan curry blend from The Spice House, but feel free to substitute your preferred curry, or try another seasoning, mebbe lemon pepper and garlic.
Shake any excess flour and seasonings off the scallops and arrange in a single layer in your prepared baking pan.
Pop ’em into the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350º, and bake for about 12 minutes, until they are firm and white and mebbe just a touch crispity in spots.
Remove from the oven and serve.
I was really pleased with how bright and sweet tasting these turned out, and that little sprinkling of Vadouvan went very nicely with the Tom Yam soup – so pleased, in fact, that I bought another bag of frozen scallops the very next time I was at the market, and have them stashed in my freezer to use in a batch of pan fried Scallops Provençal, coming soon-ish to a Parfait! post.
Seriously, though, skip the quinoa.