I haven't had much of an occasion to cook myself scallops lately, so I had a friend over for dinner last night who also loves bivalves as much as I do, which allowed me to try a new recipe I found in Food and Wine Magazine. The only glitch was that the recipe called for chestnuts and wouldn't you know, but no grocer sells chestnuts in June. This was incredibly frustrating, as I had purchased all the necessary ingredients sans chestnuts, so I opted to substitute walnuts in the sauce. Had I planned more than an hour before dinner time, perhaps chestnuts could have been found in the city. Suffice it to say, next time I'll plan ahead.
Sauce Ingredients bacon, 1 leek, 2 tbsp cognac, 1 1/2 cups chicken broth, 1/2 cup walnuts, salt/pepper
Other Ingredients Scallops, sage leaves, butter, olive oil
The recipe called for one slice of bacon, but that's like filling a fishbowl with only 1 drop of water, so I bumped it up to five slices. Slice and cook in a saucepan over medium heat until properly rendered.
I removed 1/2 the bacon for garnish later, and to the pan added the sliced leek, white and green portions. After cooking for about 5 minutes to soften, it was time to add the cognac. I purchased cheap brandy since I'm not much of a cognac drinker, but in the future I may use white wine, or a fruit cider. The fun part is adding the cognac and igniting it. Please don't attempt this at home if you've never tried it before.
Typically when you ignite liquor on the stove you are using a shallow sauce pan which you can tilt into the gas flame of the stove to pick it up. I don't have a shallow sauce pan. I used a blow torch. After about a minute the flame subsides, but if you want to make sure you can blow it out completely. Next you add the chicken broth and the walnuts, or chestnuts if you are so lucky.
Let simmer for five to ten minutes, remove from heat to cool a bit, then transfer to a blender and puree. Return to saucepan, season with salt and pepper and let sit over low heat while you prepare the scallops.
In a shallow pan heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add single sage leaves and fry for about a minute, turning over once.
If you've never had fried herbs/greens before they assume a really interesting texture. They practically melt on your mouth after an initial feeling like a thin paper. Sage leaves, since they are naturally so thick, did not have quite the same effect of disintegration, but it was close.
Finally it's time to cook the scallops in the sage infused oil. Make sure the oil level is low, and add the scallops to sear on the outside. Turn over after a minute or two. Then melt some butter in the pan and spoon it over the scallops to continue cooking for another 2 to 5 minutes. The butter acts as a poaching liquid at this point, but keeps the scallops moist.
Finally you're ready to plate. Serve immediately so the scallops don't get tough. I plated the sauce first, then piled on the mashed potatoes and displayed the scallops around. Garnish with the sage leaves and bacon. We served with salad on the side.
All in all I would prepare this again, hopefully using chestnuts instead of walnuts. The scallops were perfect, but we both agreed the brandy flavor in the sauce was a little more noticeable than we would have liked. I had no problem mixing the sauce with the mashed potatoes and avoiding the strength of the brandy. The leeks and bacon really came through too. In the future I may skip the brandy, use less, or use a different spirit. But if you like your sauces tasting like something from behind the bar, then you'll love this dish.
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