sea scallops wrapped in bacon...mmm...bacon

Well...last night was a bit of a treat. The weather was crappy, my girlfriend and I were both home for dinner, and we were planning on staying in and watching a movie. So after work, I went to my local fish monger, which luckily for me living in Hell's Kitchen, is one of the better fish mongers in the city...the Sea Breeze fish market at 40th and 9th. This place has some of the freshest fish, best prices, and most knowledgeable staff around. I can't say enough about this place.

I had been wanting to do a scallop dish for some time, as they are some of my favorite seafood. And a classic preparation of sea scallops is to wrap them in bacon, which really...how can you go wrong there. There are a few personal twists in the recipe. First, for healthiness, I almost always use turkey bacon in my kitchen. It's far better for you and if prepared right, you never notice a difference. With that in mind, turkey bacon has almost NO fat in it, so it's NEVER going to cook the same way as regular bacon. That being said, there is normally an added step or two to get similar results to traditional bacon. In this recipe, in order to get the turkey bacon to crisp up as nicely, I start it in a pan on the stove top for just a couple of minutes on ONE side to start the cooking process and begin to develop the color and crunch on the turkey bacon. The key to this step is to not cook it too much so that it doesn't break when you try to wrap it around the scallop. I also marinaded my scallops for 15-20 minutes to add another dimension of flavor. Finally, another classic flavor combination with bacon is avocado, so I served my scallops on a bed of half an avocado sliced and fanned.

A quick note on buying scallops. If you're able to buy fresh from a fish market always ask if they've got "dry" scallops. This doesn't mean dry as in lack of moisture, it means that they're not stored in a salt solution (STP) which can give a rubbery texture and leech out while cooking, making it nearly impossible to get a good sear and crust on the scallop. You may end up paying an additional $1-1.50 a lb. but it's well worth it. Here's the way I did it...

Scallops

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 Tbs. brown sugar

1-1/2 tsp. minced fresh ginger

6 very large “dry” sea scallops (8 to 10 oz. total)

12 slices bacon, cut in half crosswise

Directions

Set a rack in the upper third of the oven. Place a broiler pan on the rack. Heat the oven to 450°F.

In a medium bowl, combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, and ginger. Cut each scallop into quarters. Marinate the scallop pieces in the soy mixture for 15 minutes. Reserve the marinade.

Wrap each quarter scallop in a strip of bacon and secure with a toothpick.

Remove the broiler pan from the oven and quickly arrange the bacon-wrapped scallops on the hot pan so that an exposed side of each scallop faces up. Drizzle the scallops with the reserved marinade. Bake, turning the scallops over once after 10 minutes, until the bacon is browned around the edges and the scallops are cooked through, about 15 minutes total.

Now, my oven is rather old and the broiler pan is a bit of a mess and a pain to deal with...so I chose not too. The idea behind the broiler pan is that it's a two part pan, basically a top part with holes/slots in it and a drip pan. This allows the fat to melt away and be collected in the drip tray and not be cooked into the food. So I used a standard half sheet baking pan with a cooling wrack. I didn't notice a difference and the food came out great. Also...if you do the math in the above recipe, it yields 24 scallops...which is great for a dinner party or to use as hor d'oeuvres, but feel free to fine tune to your needs.

I must say, the scallops were quite delectable and were a quick and painless way to have enjoy a lovely dinner and a movie, without leaving home.

Mangia e statti zitto...

cheers...

dunkin