Seared Scallops with Asparagus Sauce

A few years ago my father discovered scallops, not that he didn’t know about them before, it’s just that some light bulb went off in his head one day and he decided that he had to cook them. So for a time he would madly attack any scallop recipe that seemed half-way interesting.

The problem was that he just couldn’t get them right. He had a hard time getting them browned, and more often than not, they were overcooked.

So when the-man-who-knows-more-about-seafood-than-I-ever-hope-to Hank Shaw was here the other day cooking scallops, both dad and I circled Hank like hawks, watching to see how he did it. Here’s what we learned.

You need a screaming hot pan. Scallops have a lot of moisture in them, which means you have to get the pan really hot to dry the outer edge of that moist scallop so that it can actually get hot enough to brown.

When the scallops brown, the meat pulls back a bit (contracting proteins) making them easier to turn. Now theory doesn’t always translate to practice, you might still have some sticking. But when the scallop is seared enough, it should move more easily.

An asparagus sauce is an excellent way to complement the scallops. While it looks fancy, it’s really just boiled asparagus, chopped then tossed in a blender with some chicken stock and then reheated with butter and salt. Any leftovers can be used as a sauce for pasta.

Seared Scallops with Asparagus Sauce Recipe

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.

Read More: Seared Scallops with Asparagus Sauce