Friday, August 26, 2011

Scallops au gratin for a friend


At the beginning of August, a longtime friend stayed with me for a couple of days. Paula Borralho, comes almost every year during the summer and spends a few days with me.

When she is around, I try to take her to some sites that I like - this year's novelty was the terrace of the Darwin's Café restaurant, here in Lisbon - and cook different delicacies. I like to suggest her new flavors or new ingredient combinations.

This year, for one of our lengthy lunches, among other recipes, I made scallops au gratin which turned out to be delicious.


Ingredients:
8 scallops with the shell
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
0.5dl olive oil
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon coriander, chopped
1dl cream
1 tablespoon cognac
8 small stalks of coriander
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1/2 lemon
salt
pepper
nutmeg


1. Sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil.

2. Add the chopped coriander and the bay leaf.

3. Add the cream. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

4. Sprinkle with one tablespoon of cognac. Remove from the heat when the sauce has a consistent flavor.

5. If necessary, wash the scallops to remove traces of sand. Sprinkle the scallops with a few drops of lemon juice.

6. Spread the cream and coriander sauce among the scallops. Place a stalk of coriander on each scallop.

7. Sprinkle the scallops with breadcrumbs.

8. Put in a 180ºC preheated oven for 10 minutes.


These scallops were a really delicious treat!

[ Originally published in Portuguese as Vieiras gratinadas para uma amiga ]

2 comments :

  1. These look gorgeous! I've never seen scallops on the shell in the US but maybe I could use your technique on clams!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Dani,

    you can use scallops without the shell. They will also be delicious. With clams I think the result will be very different. I am not sure if it will come out as you planned. But if you try then let me know how it went.


    Best regards,

    Laranjinha.

    ReplyDelete