Coquilles Saint-Jacques merely means “scallops” in French, but it surely is also a typical shorthand for referring to this particular preparation, during which meaty and candy scallops are coated in a velvety sauce, topped with breadcrumbs, and broiled till browned on prime. It is a basic of the French kitchen that’s continuously discovered on the menus of bistros and brasseries, and makes for a splendidly elegant appetizer when entertaining at dwelling, particularly when served on a scallop shell.

My recipe is designed to honor probably the most conventional variations of this dish, whereas taking a number of liberties to spice up taste and resolve a few of the larger points I had when following extra conventional variations intently. Earlier than I clarify my departures from custom and why I took them, I am going to first undergo the weather of this dish to elucidate roughly what’s typical, although have in mind it is a dish that takes many kinds in numerous kitchens and arms—there isn’t any one single method to make it.

Basic Parts of Coquilles Saint-Jacques

Most iterations of this dish have just a few key issues in widespread:

• Scallops: Cannot actually have a scallop dish with out scallops, proper? In probably the most supreme of worlds, we would all be capable to discover dwell scallops within the shell, that are the sweetest and freshest, and include a shell that doubles as a built-in, very fairly serving dish. However the actuality is that only a few of us can get dwell scallops a lot of the time. That is okay, we will nonetheless make this work.

  First, be sure you purchase dry-packed sea scallops, not ones which have been brined. Brined scallops are swollen with brining resolution, which causes them to dump liquid within the pan when cooked, stopping browning. Even worse, they style like absolute crap, nothing just like the amazingly candy flesh of a correct dry scallop.

  The scallops are historically poached gently in a white wine–based mostly courtroom bouillon (the time period for a flippantly acidic, fragrant broth used for such functions). This poaching liquid is then used within the sauce (see under).

  As for serving, for those who actually need to do it on the shell such as you see within the footage right here, you possibly can order cleaned scallop shells for meals use on-line. You may as well skip that and simply use small ramekins and even small gratin dishes.

• Sauce: The sauce for coquilles Saint-Jacques is usually a velouté, which is the French time period for a velvety roux-thickened sauce comprised of a inventory or broth, although milk or cream will be added as effectively. If it helps, consider velouté like a béchamel however with some form of inventory or broth rather than a lot of the milk.

  Many recipes use the scallop’s white wine–based mostly poaching liquid to make the velouté, thickening it with a butter-and-flour roux, enriching it with cream or milk, after which additional thickening and enriching it with an egg yolk. Many coquilles Saint-Jacques recipes additionally add mushrooms and shallots to the sauce.

• Golden Topping: As soon as spooned into the serving vessels, the scallops and sauce are often topped with a breadcrumb combination, usually with a cheese like Gruyère combined in, after which broiled till golden and crispy—scrumptious proof that cheese and seafood can certainly go collectively.

I began my recipe growth by making this recipe a lot nearer to this extra conventional strategy, however I bumped into some points that I wished to resolve. First, I discovered that the scallops too simply bought misplaced when poached and lined in such strong different components.

Second, I discovered the sauce too sharp. It lacked a savory depth; even rounded out with milk, the difficulty continued. I concluded that basing the sauce on a courtroom bouillon made primarily of dry white wine was contributing to this.

After some experimenting, the ultimate model of my recipe makes an attempt to deal with this, admittedly by departing from custom within the course of. I am snug with that—authenticity for its personal sake is not one thing I am keen on, so long as we’re clear about when and why we’re splitting from the extra conventional strategies.

The Strategies That Make This Recipe Totally different (and Scrumptious)

One of many first issues I did when rethinking my very own strategy to this basic was to sear the scallops. Searing good-quality sea scallops brings out their inherent sweetness and deepens it—it is one thing I wished to infuse into each the scallops and the sauce. To make that occur, I sear the scallops in the exact same saucepan I take advantage of to make the sauce, making a fond on the underside of the pan that I can then seize with subsequent deglazing.

Now, I am going to admit that searing scallops in a small three-quart saucepan shouldn’t be the best method to do it. They’re going to be slightly crowded, they’re going to steam extra, you might not get the world’s greatest sear on them. However that is advantageous, the objective right here is not the world’s greatest seared scallops, it is merely to cook dinner them flippantly and construct a few of that sweetness and fond.

The subsequent change I made was including bottled clam juice to the white wine broth. This provides a savory, shellfish-forward basis for the sauce to help the scallops whereas decreasing the amount of wine within the sauce. The result’s a extra flavorful sauce that is properly balanced with the wine’s acidity, however not sharp or harsh.

To spice up the sauce’s taste much more, I simmer the wine and clam juice with aromatics like shallot, thyme, bay leaf, and the trimmed stems of the mushrooms (as a result of, sure, I made a decision I wished to go along with the mushrooms on this recipe). However then I took it a step additional, including a small dose of prompt dashi. That is a type of clearly nontraditional strategies that makes such a beautiful completely different within the outcome. It will increase the sauce’s umami taste whereas tying collectively two crucial parts—the earthy mushrooms and candy, fresh-from-the-sea scallops—because of the dashi’s deep umami core that always incorporates each mushroom and components from the ocean.

Apart from that, I stick fairly near custom, cooking the mushrooms and shallots till deeply flavorful, constructing a roux- and egg yolk–enriched velouté, and topping every serving with crispy and golden buttery breadcrumbs flavored with grated Gruyere and contemporary thyme.

The result’s completely French, even when that is, in some methods, a extra trendy interpretation of that. Then once more, that too is completely French, as a result of the delicacies may be very a lot alive and open to reinvention.