Shell Station

Whenever I think about Shell station I think about scallops! This past weekend we invited our good friend Dottie over for dinner. The original idea was to make a seafood pot pie that I made for my wife a few weeks ago on a whim. It was one of those nights rummaging through the fridge looking through my food inventory. It would be great if someone would invent an inventory system that would display everything in the fridge and freezer on the appliance and accessible remotely. Okay, that was way too geeky.

I went to the store looking for fresh seafood and decided to add a few more items to the grocery list that I really didn't need. I figure I can always freeze it or store it in the fridge in the garage. It dawn on me with all the extra ingredients that I can create different dishes based on scallops. I really enjoy good scallops prepare well. They key to good scallop is quality and not to overcook them -- very similar to shrimp. There is a difference between wet and dry scallops. Dry scallops are difficult to find in stores because they are generally more expensive. Wet scallops are commonly treated with phosphates to act as a preservative. They weigh more since they absorb more water and when you cook them, you can't brown them with the excess water. Dry scallops are preferred since there no additives and more natural. I bought wet scallops for the dinner since it was the easiest to find.

I decided to cook scallops 4 ways for dinner -- 3 of them as appetizers.  The first appetizer is the rice porridge with "dried" scallops. Good quality dried scallops (also known as conpoy) are generally made from scallops from Japan. It has a strong and rich flavor used a lot in gourmet Asian cooking. They are quite expensive ranging from $25 to $175 a pound. I made the porridge aka congee using fresh chicken broth from a fresh chicken that I boiled with ginger and 3 slices of dried abalone. I added 5 cups of the broth, 1 cup of rice, sliced up abalone and about 5 dried scallops that have been rehydrated in hot water for about 4 hours in a rice cooker. There is a setting on my fancy schmancy fuzzy logic rice cooker that would cook the porridge. I'll run the porridge cycle twice to give it the nice smooth consistency. I topped the porridge with sliced scallions, a bit of roasted onions, and ginger.

The second appetizer is a favorite of mine from 0/8 Seafood Grill in Bellevue, WA.  I duplicated the recipe from Chef Dan Thiessen. It is a sashimi scallop with soy-miso vinaigrette. I didn't make the wasabi aioli. Instead I created my own sauce that consists of Japanese mayo, tobiko, and Sriracha. It's a nice spicy flavor that gives it a bit of a kick. I use this sauce in my paella! Finding live scallops in the shell is next to impossible so I purchased sashimi grade scallops instead.

The third appetizer is a steamed scallop with fermented with fermented black beans. I borrowed this recipe from a blog Rasa Malaysia.  I also made minor modifications that included adding garlic and an XO scallop sauce. 

The appetizer was a good balance of a variety of ways to cook scallops and also the different types of scallops that you can purchase in the market. If I were to do this over, I would probably switch the porridge with something lighter like a scallop seafood broth with a touch of saffron similar to a Bouillabaisse since the entree is heavier with the cream sauce.

The final entree the scallop seafood pot pie is mostly my creation with some assistance from Paula Deen's Seafood Pot Pie.  Differences in include using large shrimps 15-30 placed on the side of the ramekin, using king crab meat on the bottom, and no cheese. This dish I used the wet scallops for the filling and topped this off with a puff pastry crust. I like to use a variety of aromatics as a base like shallots, onions, mushrooms, carrots and sometimes leeks. Celery is used frequently in a mirepoix. I'm not a big fan of celery so it's not used much in my cooking. I cooked the aromatics with the mushrooms and made a Bechamel sauce that I used for the filling. I lightly buttered the inside of the ramekin, place the king crab meat on the bottom, lined a couple of the large shrimps on the side, and then add the filling. The puff pastry crust goes on last and I added a few slits on top to allow the steam to vent. Cook this in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.

The pot pie was unbelievable!  On the side of the dish I roasted some string beans with garlic and made some parmesan cheese twist with the leftover puff pastry.  My stepdaughter helped create the twists as I was cooking the pot pie.  It was quite easy to make where you take 2 strips of puff pastry and twist. Grate some parmesan cheese and roll the puff pastry in the cheese. You bake it along with the pot pie and it's perfect.