Cooking with Scallops – Fun Facts and DIY Recipe

I’ve been craving for seafood the past few days but didn’t really have access to fresh seafood, so I thought I was stuck to be seafood-less forever! Thankfully, I saw someone offering up fresh scallops at a decent price (or at least I thought it was decent). For PHP 300, I get 1kg of fresh scallop meat (or ~950g since it loses water weight during transport) – freshly harvested the day before, deshelled, not frozen, no chemical preservatives and no fishy smell – all of these beauties arrived at my table the day after harvest.

Now, it was my first time to purchase AND cook scallops, so I actually did some research beforehand. These are pretty much the pertinent facts you have to know when purchasing and cooking scallops:

Why eat scallops?

Scallops are incredibly rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and relatively low in calories. Not only that, but they are an incredibly healthy source of protein.

Most importantly, they’re SUPER tasty and incredibly simple to cook

How are scallops harvested?

Scallops are harvested either through trawling (where they scrape the ocean floor and pull up scallops – regardless of size or maturity, plus you typically pull up other stuff as well) or through diving (where divers carefully choose mature scallops by hand)

Between the two methods, diving is the more environmentally friendly method since only mature scallops are harvested. Equally important for us cooks, scallops obtained through diving are less gritty since they didn’t go through the scraping process

What should you consider when purchasing scallops?

Some background information: Scallops are incredibly perishable, so oftentimes, they are treated with a solution of sodium tripolyphosphate (STP) which ensures the scallop doesn’t dry out, then quickly frozen. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but scallops that have been excessively treated with STP absorbs a lot of moisture. This is bad for you for two reasons:

• Scallops are sold by weight. The more moisture absorbed, the “heavier” the scallops, the more you have to pay – for what’s essentially water
• Wet scallops (what STP-treated scallops are called) are more likely to steam (given all the excess water) when you sauté or sear scallops, instead of achieving that beautiful caramelized/browned crusty sear you’re aiming for
• Wet scallops tend to have a soapy taste and a bouncy texture after they’re cooked, which is obviously not preferable. Dry scallops, on the other hand, are sweeter and fresh tasting in comparison

So, what should you look for when purchasing scallops?

• Ask / Confirm if what you’re purchasing is dry scallop (what you want!) or wet scallop (what you don’t want). If there’s no one to ask, you can also take a look at the color and texture. Dry scallops are generally ivory to beige with a slightly sticky texture (but NOT slimy). On the other hand, wet scallops look and feel a bit unnatural – for one, it’s rather uniformly bright white and second, they’re typically very wet to the touch
• Smell the scallops – it should smell like the ocean. Do not buy them if there’s a strong fishy smell
• Check if the scallops are in one piece. If it looks like it’s falling apart, it’s a good sign the scallops are not as fresh as you would like them to be

How should you store freshly purchased scallops?

If you plan to cook it within the day, simply place it in the refrigerator. Take out once you plan to cook it, and carefully wash the scallops of any grit or dust that came along with it

But if you don’t plan to cook it immediately, then you should seal the scallops straight inside a ziplock without washing. Before cooking, thaw the scallops (by placing in the refrigerator overnight, or by putting under cold running water if in a hurry) without removing from the ziplock. Afterwards, wash the scallops only after it has been completely thawed. Do NOT over wash.

I’m not sure if my scallops are wet scallops or dry scallops. How can I check?

Easy. Place a scallop on a paper towel on a plate in the microwave and microwave it for 15 seconds. When it comes out, check if there’s a noticeable ring of water around the scallop.

If yes, then you have wet scallops

If very little moisture was released on the paper towel, then you have dry scallops

Don’t worry if you have wet scallops. There’s a trick you can do to cover up the icky chemical taste. Simply soak the scallops in 1 quart of cold water, mixed with 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 2 tbsp of salt for 30 minutes.

What’s the secret to cooking scallops?

I REALLY REALLY wanted to pan sear my scallops. Unfortunately, because of the bad weather, the divers can’t dive too deep so the scallops harvested during this season are pretty small. Anyway, it’s not a big deal – they were still delicious. Unfortunately, they were definitely not big enough to develop a sear lest I ended up overcooking them.

There are two important steps to consider at this point:

• They key to a beautiful scallop is minimize the moisture in the scallop so they won’t steam, and all the heat in the pan will serve to cook the scallops evenly. To do so, carefully pat them dry. In my case, my 1kg scallops literally meant 100+ small scallops so there was no way I was going to pat each and every one of them. Instead, I pulled out a tray, placed paper towels on the bottom, sprinkled the scallops across the towel, then covered with another layer of paper towel which I used to pat the scallops. This was a pretty easy way of getting the scallops dry

• Scallops are lean protein, so they toughen very easily upon cooking. When done right, scallops are succulent and beautifully transparent when you cut it open. When overcooked, it can quickly taste chewy akin to a rubber ball

DIY Recipe for cooking scallops

STEP 1: Prepare your sauce

• Since cooking scallops is relatively fast, you want to make sure you already have everything pre-assembled so you aren’t scrambling when you suddenly need something.
• Mince 1 tbsp garlic, juice 1 lemon, then mix together with 1/2 cup dry wine (feel free to add more if desired) – this will serve as your base sauce

• Cut up 2 tbsp of butter, then slice into bite sized pieces – to be placed into the freezer. Later, when cooking, you’ll whisk in these chilled butter one bit at a time to make the sauce creamy

STEP 2: Cook the scallops

• Pat the scallops dry, or use my paper towel method as mentioned above

• Heat your pan over medium-high heat for ~3 minutes or until very hot. Add 1 tbsp butter and olive oil
• Once butter is melted, add the scallops to the pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Do NOT overcrowd the skillet

• Normally, if the scallops are bigger – you’d do ~1-2 minutes per side, then turn. In my case, my scallops were so tiny – so I did ~1 minute in total and didn’t bother turning.
• NOTE: Scallops should offer no resistance when you’re ready to turn them / remove them from the pan. If you encounter resistance, press down on the scallop gently to encourage full contact with the pan. Moisture in the scallop will heat up and evaporate. Afterwards, it should be easier to turn/remove
• Transfer the cooked scallops to a separate plate

STEP 3: Mix in the sauce

• Stir in the garlic, lemon juice, and wine mixture. Make sure to scrape all the brown bits off the bottom of your pan because these are the ones that add “flavor”

• Lower the heat and cook until the liquid in the skillet thickens. Once it does so, slowly whisk in the chilled butter bit by bit to make the sauce creamier. Honestly, my sauce wasn’t very creamy. Not sure where I went wrong LOL. Plus, I opted to add some sugar to the sauce because I found it a bit too acidic

• Finally, return the scallops to the pan and make sure to coat the scallops with the sauce

STEP 4: Bon Appetit!

Where can I buy scallops?

I bought mine from the person below (found them on Facebook and they seem pretty legit) – you have to pre-order before Friday.

• Contact person: Melody, 09176181490
• Location: Across Bambang Market
• Price: PHP 300 / kg (In retrospect, I wonder how they earn money! Diving for these scallops must’ve taken a lot of time, then deshelling it – just thinking of the labor cost alone makes me feel as if I underpaid :o)
• Payment: Through GCash or BDO