Plan on 3 sea scallops per person for a light dinner or
appetizer, 5 scallops for a full main course. Many sea scallops come
with a tough flap of meat attached to them. Just pull it off and either
discard or use in a seafood stock. The asparagus sauce is a great way
to use the spears of asparagus in case you’ve chopped off the tips for
use in another recipe. You’re just puréeing them here, so you’ll never
see the tips.
Ingredients
- 6 sea scallops*
- Salt
- 1 pound asparagus
- 1/2 cup warm chicken broth (if cooking gluten-free use gluten-free
stock)
- 2-3 Tbsp butter
- 2 Tbsp canola or grapeseed oil or other high smoke-point oil
Sea scallops are the big scallops, about 1 1/2-inches wide, as
opposed to bay scallops which are small, about 1/2-inch wide. Look for
"dry pack” scallops, as they are not treated with chemicals to keep them
fresh; the chemicals are not overly harmful, but they change the
texture of the scallop and make them harder to sear properly.
Method
1 Salt the scallops well and set aside at room
temperature while you make the asparagus sauce.
2 Steam the asparagus for the sauce. Use a potato peeler to
shave the outer layer off the asparagus spears, up to about
three-quarters of the way up the spear. This part is more fibrous and
will not break down as well in the blender. Chop into 2-inch pieces.
Boil the asparagus in a pot of salted water for 5-8 minutes. This is
longer than you’d normally cook asparagus, but you want the spears to
blend well later.
3 Remove the asparagus from the pot. If you want to retain
that vibrant green color, shock them in an ice bath. Put them in a food
processor or blender. Add half the chicken stock and purée until
smooth. (If you want an even smoother texture you can push the purée
through a fine mesh sieve or a food mill.) Pour the sauce into a small
pot and add the butter. Heat over very low heat until the butter melts,
but do not let it boil, or even simmer. The sauce should be warm, not
hot. If the sauce is too thick you can add more chicken stock. Add salt
to taste.
4 Pat the scallops dry with a paper towel. Heat a sauté pan
on high heat. Add a high smoke point oil like canola or grapeseed oil,
and let it heat up for 2 minutes. The pan should be very hot. If it
starts to smoke, move the pan off the heat. Lay in the scallops in the
pan, well separated from each other. You might need to sear in batches.
If your scallops are thicker than 1 inch, turn the heat down to
medium-high. Most sea scallops are about an inch. Let them sear without
moving for at least 3-4 minutes. Keep an eye on them. You will see a
crust beginning to form on the outside edge of the scallop, and the meat
will begin to whiten upward. A good time to check the scallop is when
you see a golden brown ring at the edge of the scallop. Try picking it
up with tongs, and if it comes cleanly, check it – you should see a deep
golden sear. If not, let it back down and keep searing.
5 When the scallops are well seared on one side, turn them
over and sear on high heat for 1 minute (give or take). Then turn off
the heat. The residual heat will continue to cook the scallops for a few
minutes. Let the scallops cook for at least another minute, or more if
you like your scallops well-done.
To serve pour a little sauce in the middle of the plate, top with the
scallops, the more browned side up.
Serve at once. Garnish with a little chopped parsley if you want,
and maybe with a wedge of lemon.
