Sea Scallops served over Jasmine Rice for a simple and elegant date-night meal.
Some of the best Sea Scallops come from ice-cold New England waters and are harvested just in time for a holiday splurge. The rich flavor of the scallop is the main attraction.
Sea Scallops are both easy and tricky to prepare. Simply dry w/ paper towels, season w/ salt & pepper, in a hot pan – sauté in a little olive oil and butter mixed, cook untouched for 2-3 minutes, turn over and cook the bottom for 1-2 minutes more. You want the interior of the scallop to stay moist and tender, the top to have a brown crust and the bottom to have a slight sear. (Overcooked scallops are a disaster – they become rubbery and anything but elegant on the tongue and upper palate.) – Jack Atkinson, Editor
COLD WEATHER SCALLOPS
FROM MAINE
If you love sea scallops, then cold weather is the best time of the year, because scallop season is open in Maine.
More than 95 percent of all scallops are harvested year-round from large boats that spend a week or more at sea hauling in scallops in waters ranging from North Carolina to Canada. Because scallops don’t live long in their shells, they must be shucked on the boat. Usually stored on ice in mesh bags, the shucked scallops can easily absorb water from the melting ice, which can dilute their flavor. Plus, some scallops get soaked in a whitening and preserving solution, which also artificially plumps them. Excess water can inflate scallops’ price per pound and can affect how well they sear.
Scallops harvested in Maine water don’t see ice time or chemical preservation. Here’s why: Maine scallops can be harvested only in winter, when it does not interfere with lobster traps. Due to strict
regulations established to save a depleting resource, Maine scallop permits also require that scallops be harvested within 3 miles of shore and
limit the daily catch to 135 pounds per boat, which means boats go out and back in a day. Aside from being incredibly fresh with a sweet, delicate flavor, these “day-boat” scallops are kept cold naturally thanks to Maine’s wintry weather, so they don’t get put on ice.
Diver scallops?
Chances are you’ve seen scallops described on a restaurant menu as “diver” scallops. Diver scallops, harvested by hand by a scuba diver, are quite rare and account for less than 1 percent of all domestically harvested scallops. While no different from the boat harvested scallops, diver scallops tend to be larger, handled with great care, sold within hours of coming out of the water, and are more expensive, but they are the highest quality of all scallops. Because Maine has lots of coastline that’s too rocky for boat harvesting, most fresh diver scallops in the US come from there.
How to buy the best scallops
Luxurious Maine scallops can retail from $20 to $35 per pound, so it’s best to shop for scallops from a trusted source; you can also find Maine day-boat scallops via mail order. One option is IQF (individually quick frozen) scallops, which were flash-frozen at sea shortly after being harvested. As long as they have been properly handled, these scallops can offer great fresh, sweet flavor. Scallops that are brilliant white and slippery are likely to have been chemically treated. If available choose “dry” scallops that are more ivory in color (or pink or orange, a natural variation) with an almost sticky feel to them.
Maine Scallops Info Source: https://www.finecooking.com/article/maine-ingredient-how-to-buy-and-cook-sea-scallops
