Sunday Cookbook Adventures: Scallop Fest

I did something a little different with my cookbook adventure this weekend. I could pretend it was inspired by something clever (like this great article), but in reality it was sort of random. I needed to drive out to Sherborn to pick up 70 pounds of hay for the rabbits at (the totally awesome) Sweet Meadow Farms, and it just so happens that the place where I buy kick-ass diver scallops is directly on the way home from there. This was clearly a sign from above that I should be cooking scallops this weekend. I couldn't decide which scallop dish to make, torn between a simple-yet-elegant recipe from the Gourmet cookbook and a somewhat-fussier recipe from the Momofuku cookbook. Not in the mood for tough decisions, the easiest solution seemed to be to make both. This sets up a bit of a competition: Who will win? Mainstream cooking magazine (with a few modifications from me) or fancy-pants restaurant cookbook? We'll do this chronologically and start with Gourmet's scallops.
Stanley got me this cookbook as part of my birthday present, the idea being that it contains some less fussy recipes than, say, Thomas Keller's cookbooks that could be good inspirations/starting points for me in the kitchen. I took this as approval for me to modify as I saw fit, which happened a couple times here. The recipe was Sea Scallops with Corn Coulis and Tomatoes, so the first step was to prep the Corn Coulis...
This simple sauce combined fresh corn, basil, shallots, and garlic. Because I had already given myself permission to take certain liberties with this recipe, below are Emily-style measurements of the 1 teaspoon minced shallot and 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic...
Add a similarly-inappropriately-sized "teaspoon" of basil, and you're ready to go on the sauce...
The shallot and garlic are sautéed in a little oil, then the corn and basil are added to the pan and cooked until the corn starts to color...
What's that strange bend in my spoon handle in the picture above, you ask? Why, that's not a spoon at all! It's a Supoon from the good people at DreamFarm. Check it out:
How awesome is that? (The correct answer, of course, is "Pretty freaking awesome.") In addition to the awesomeness of being able to set the Supoon down without the "spoon" part touching the counter, the "spoon" part is soft and spatula-like at the end, for good scraping action in the pan...
Anyway... Back to cooking. When the corn starts to take on some color, the recipe asks you to deglaze the pan with some milk. This strikes me as a sort of stupid idea. Given the two liquids in the picture below as options (a lovely Alsatian Gewürztraminer or some milk), which would you choose to deglaze a pan with?
The Gewürztraminer? Me, too. After deglazing, I sautéed for a couple more seconds to let the liquid cook and evaporate,
then added the milk and put the whole mixture in a blender to purée until smooth before passing through a fine mesh sieve.
The sauce is sort of like a thin-but-incredibly-awesome corn soup. The only other non-scallop component on the plate is supposed to be diced tomatoes tossed with parsley, but I'm not a parsley fan and I had this beautiful basil sitting right there (which I also thought would pick up the basil accent in the Corn Coulis), so I made the substitution...Finally, the scallops. Fresh, beautiful diver scallops are probably my very favorite luxury food item. They make me incredibly happy.
A little salt and pepper, pan-seared on both sides until browned and perfectly cooked... then plated up with the coulis and tomatoes:
The corn sauce is a slightly green color from the basil, but it tastes amazing. I love the sweetness of the corn playing off of the savory, ocean-y diver scallops... The basil and tomatoes were a nice herbal/acidic complement to the creaminess of the corn and the richness of the scallops. In summary, this rocked. It was quick and easy (and healthy, shockingly), but doesn't look too shabby on a plate... Plus: totally delicious. Next up, it was time to see how one of my very favorite cookbooks does scallops...
The dish was Roasted Scallop with Kohlrabi Puree and Pickled Chanterelles, and I ran into trouble right away because Chanterelles aren't quite in season yet. (The interweb says July to September for New England Chanterelles, but I'll be damned if I could find any...) I bought some good-looking oyster mushrooms to substitute, but may have to try this again when I can get my hands on the proper mushrooms...
The mushrooms are pickled in a way that you're pretty used to if you've been cooking from this book for a while: hot water, rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. The only other major non-scallop components are the Bacon Dashi (which I had in the freezer from before) and the kohlrabi purée. (Incidentally, as you may be noticing, this is a relatively un-fussy Momofuku recipe...) I'd never actually cooked with kohlrabi before, but I really liked it. You start by peeling and rough-dicing it...
... then simmer in salted water until the kohlrabi is soft. At this point you're supposed to "mash" it, but (a) I don't own a masher (I probably need a Smood from DreamFarm...) and (b) I'd heard rumors that the mashing wasn't super-effective if the end result is something you want to call a purée. I decided to do what I do when I make mashed potatoes, which is to break out the ol' food mill.
This resulted in a nice purée that I could pass easily through a fine sieve as David Chang instructed...
I thought it might be too loose, so I poured off a bit of the liquid at first just in case, but ended up adding it all back in and liking the consistency. The purée was totally delicious. It tasted rich and buttery despite just being a puréed vegetable with a little salt...
Before plating, some scallions needed to be thinly sliced and put in cold water...
... then it's time for the scallops. Again with salt and pepper, but this time the cooking would only take place on one side and over much higher heat. (No pictures of this process, since it was sort of intense.) After getting an initial sear, (Amish) butter is added to the pan and used to baste the scallops as they continue to sear on that initial side. I think I needed slighlty lower heat, but I liked the technique a lot and will definitely use it again.
Chang actually gives detailed plating instructions, which is the only part of this recipe that you could consider a little "fussy," but which is also something I really appreciate. The purée goes down (with a streak spread up the side that will come in handy later).
A scallop goes on top of the mound of purée. (The edges look pretty dark, but they didn't taste burnt... Like I said, slightly lower heat next time...)
A couple pickled mushrooms are added to the bowl...
Scallions are sprinkled over... (This is looking really pretty, yeah?)
Some iwa nori (which is apparently un-pressed nori) is placed along that smear of kohlrabi purée...
Finally, a couple tablespoons of bacon dashi are ladled in. I'm going to let you imagine what that must look like based on the picture above, since my lamp tipped over as I was spooning dashi and fell directly into the bowl, creating what was not the world's most lovely presentation. Sigh. You can see how pretty it had the potential to be, though... The dish was delicious, but not really mind-blowing. I loved the kohlrabi purée on its own, but I didn't feel like it stood up very well to the strong flavor of the pickled mushrooms and seaweed, so it sort of got lost in a mix of flavors, melding in with the bacon dashi and disappearing. I will try this again with Chanterelles, for sure, and I think these flavors may resonate more with me closer to September... but I may also decide to tweak a couple things to try to get more balanced flavors to go with that perfect scallop. We'll see. This is one of the few Momofuku recipes I've tried that didn't leave me near-speechlessly in awe of David Chang, but his book still remains one of my very favorite cookbooks. In the end, coming as a bit of a surprise to me, the winner of Scallop Fest turned out to be...
... The scallops from Gourmet! The dish paired flavors that naturally love and support one another, and the dish made me really happy. You could see plating up individual scallops as a nice appetizer at your next summer dinner party, too, which is something I like in a dish (since I'm always searching for new things to serve at dinner parties...). Anyway, I guess this is proof that you shouldn't be a cookbook snob. I may do more Random-Ingredient Fests in the future, comparing simple recipes with fancy-pants ones, because this was pretty fun. If nothing else, Scallop Fest definitely reaffirmed for me that fresh diver scallops are one of the best foods in the whole wide world... Mmmm....