How to cook scallops
Everyone who visited the Mediterranean countries couldpurchase a little convex shells as a souvenir. The flaps of such shells are often decorated with other products or used to make sea beads. But none of us even has no idea that these shells belong to the scallops.
At the moment, the population of sea scallops in natural conditions is already recovering after its almost complete disappearance. The reason for this was the rapid reproduction of brownalgae in the 80s of last century. Therefore, sea scallops, which grew in the ocean, almost do not catch. At the moment, sea scallops are grown on farms, and it is worth noting that their meat is much sweeter than those that were mined in the ocean. By the way, sea scallops should preferably be caught by hands, not by a net. Because of the net catch, scallops experience stress, which affects the taste of meat, as the gourmets say.
When you buy sea scallops in a store, the first thing pay attention to the manufacturer. Good producers sell scallop meat invacuum packing. Such scallops succumbed to a shock freeze to preserve the taste of meat as best as possible. But loose scallops will be much cheaper, but their taste will not be so saturated.
It should be noted that The preparation of scallops begins with their defrosting. For this, the scallop package is placed incold water for 40 minutes. Since the scallops are very quickly thawed, it is very important not to miss the moment when the mollusks are already suitable for further heat treatment. If you leave the scallops for a long time to unfreeze in the water, they will begin to lose their taste. In restaurants for defrosting scallops use not simple water, but a little diluted with milk.
There are several ways how to prepare scallops. Depending on your culinary preferences, choose one way or another. So, scallops can be eaten raw, but also fried, boiled and stewed. It is necessary to tell a little more about each method of preparation of sea scallops.
How to cook scallops: raw feed
Scallops are delicious if served raw. For this, the meat of sea scallops is cut into thin slices. To emphasize their soft tender taste, the meat can be salted, peppered and poured with a small amount of olive oil.
Also raw scallops can be marinated. For marinade you can use spices (salt,pepper, basil, dill, thyme, rosemary, parsley), balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Slice meat scallops should be marinated for at least 1 hour.
How to cook scallops: cooking and stewing
Now tell us how to prepare scallops in a saucepan. Brewed scallops for a short time - only for 3-5 minutes in salted water. During this time, the meat of sea scallops must lose transparency. Cooked scallops are used to make salads.
Steamed scallops served with mashed potatoes as a garnish. Stew combs with fried onions and with the addition of tomato paste.
How to cook scallops: frying
Fried scallops can be grilled either on a frying pan or on a grill. To prepare scallops on the grill the gridshould be oiled so that the mollusks do not molest it. Also, it would not hurt to grease scallops with oil, so that they do not dry out during cooking, and the meat would turn out juicy. Prepare scallops on the grill for a couple of minutes to make them become opaque. But it all depends on the size of the mollusc - the larger the scallop, the more time it will take to prepare it.
Fry the scallops in a large enough pan. Try To spread the scallops so that they do not touch each other during roasting. Fry the scallops on one side forOne and a half minutes. Then they should be turned over to the other side and fried for another 1.5 minutes. If after this time the central part of the scallops remains transparent, you can prolong their cooking for another two minutes. But actually the scallops are already ready for use.
How to cook scallops: use in other dishes
Often scallops are used to prepare various dishes, such as risotto or soup. How to cook scallops in this case? The fact that the scallops are prepared very quickly, so add them to another dish should be 3-4 minutes before it is fully prepared and served on the table. Sea scallops can not only be cooked very quickly, but can also be digested. Because of this, the scallops will not be soft, but "rubber", which happens with all the improperly prepared seafood. If you want to pre-fry the scallops, and then add them to another dish, you can proceed as follows. Slightly fried scallops, add to the main course, say, risotto, only after its full preparation.
Prepared scallops are not recommended to reheat, because they will lose their tenderness of meat and softness of taste. We recommend you to serve scallops immediately after their preparation and count so that the dish is completely eaten at a time.
