And Then I cooked Scallops........

I cooked the scallops. This, rightly or wrongly, is how I did it. I cleaned the scallops, this was just a wash in running water. I then lightly rolled them in flour. They were then cooked in butter with the merest hint of garlic; the merest hint, as I'm not a garlic lover. I cooked them for about one and a half minutes each side so the outside of them was just going a very light brown. They were served with a pasta salad.

And the result? The pasta salad was excellent, as you would expect from a leading supermarkets salad bar. It's quite amazing how much salad you can cram into one of those little plastic containers they provide. Mine was approaching the weight of a small black hole by the time I was through and I'm sure that, with a little more effort, it should be possible to provide a family of six with a daily side salad for a month from one cramming.

The scallops tasted of, well, to me, just about nothing other than a hint of garlic butter. I'm not sure what I was expecting - a strong taste of the sea? Whatever that may be. Dead seals and toxic waste? And a hint of garlic butter of course. The closest I can get is the taste of a very, very weak tasting herring roe.

I would say that if you have never had scallops, save your money, but if you have had scallops, and enjoyed them, please let me know how you cooked them and what they are supposed to taste of.

The haddock, no, not that bit, that bit, was very nice by the way.

For the time being I'm back to poached eggs on toast.

Quote - Carl Sagan;

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."

And Then There Were Scallops.........

I was in an old fashioned wet fish shop the other day, a fishmongers; is that it, mongers? What's a monger? Anyway, while gazing at all the fishy stuff on the mongers slab I spotted scallops. Now possibly as a result of watching too many cooking programs on the telly, and telly cooks all seeming to love preparing and eating scallops, I realised that in all my years I have never tried one. Scallops that is, not mongers. They were marked up at a very reasonable £2 for 100 grams and as befitting my mature years and Worldly knowledge I couldn't figure in my mind what 100 grams would look like in scallops, other than it must be shed loads at £2 a pop. {Oh yes, maths again.}

I decided this was the day I would try scallops. I toyed with the idea of ordering in French but decided that by the time I had learned the language scallops would have moved onto the endangered list. So as I moved up the queue and I got my turn with the monger man I decided to just casually throw my scallop order in along with the other fish stuff so it would seem like I eat them all the time.

'Ah yes, that bit of haddock please. No, not that bit, that bit. Yes, that bit. No, wait a minute, I think I'll have that first bit and not that bit please. Oh my, and don't the scallops look good today; I'll take 100 Grams of 'em please my good monger.'

I have a better grasp of the gram thing now as 100 of them does not equal the expected shed load but rather equals 1 large, 2 medium and 2 small scallops. And scallops aren't that big either are they? Even a large one's nothing to write home about.

I've watched scallops being cooked on the telly so it should be straight forward...........


Quote - Karl Marx;

"Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to fish, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity."