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Thing Forty-Nine: Scallops Provençale
May. 27th, 2014 10:41 amGuess what? I followed a recipe! Well, mostly. :)
Anyone who reads this blog knows I usually make stuff up when I cook. Yesterday, though, my brain was mostly focused on knitting and gardening, and by the time late afternoon came around and I realized I'd need to go to the grocery store soon, I had no idea of what to make for dinner. I went on Serious Eats and looked at a couple of the recipe columns they have that focused on quick and easy cooking. Browsing one of them ("French in a Flash"), I found a recipe for Broiled Scallops Provençale. The name of the recipe is a bit misleading, as the scallops are really baked, not broiled, at a fairly high heat.
The basic idea of the recipe is that you put scallops and grape tomatoes into a couple of gratin dishes, then top them with a mix of breadcrumbs, fresh basil, garlic, parmesan cheese, and butter. You bake them at 450 until the top is brown and the scallops are cooked through. I didn't have gratin dishes, so I just used an 8"x8" Pyrex baking dish and put both servings in there. I substituted panko for the fresh breadcrumbs in the recipe, since that's what I had available. I also didn't have grape tomatoes; however, I did have Campari tomatoes, which I quartered and stuck in there with the scallops. I used less butter in the breadcrumbs than the recipe specified, I think--maybe a tablespoon instead of two.
This was a really easy recipe. The herbed breadcrumbs were deliciously flavorful. The scallops were perfectly cooked through. The tomatoes provided a tangy complement to the sweet scallops. Everything worked beautifully, even if I did need to cook it a bit longer than the recipe specified, likely due to the different bakeware.
I used some of the fresh basil along with some fresh dill I had to make a yogurt-based dressing for the salad that accompanied the scallops. I thought about making some polenta to serve underneath the scallops when I plated them, but decided the dish would probably be filling enough, and it was. This will definitely be a dish I make again!
Anyone who reads this blog knows I usually make stuff up when I cook. Yesterday, though, my brain was mostly focused on knitting and gardening, and by the time late afternoon came around and I realized I'd need to go to the grocery store soon, I had no idea of what to make for dinner. I went on Serious Eats and looked at a couple of the recipe columns they have that focused on quick and easy cooking. Browsing one of them ("French in a Flash"), I found a recipe for Broiled Scallops Provençale. The name of the recipe is a bit misleading, as the scallops are really baked, not broiled, at a fairly high heat.
The basic idea of the recipe is that you put scallops and grape tomatoes into a couple of gratin dishes, then top them with a mix of breadcrumbs, fresh basil, garlic, parmesan cheese, and butter. You bake them at 450 until the top is brown and the scallops are cooked through. I didn't have gratin dishes, so I just used an 8"x8" Pyrex baking dish and put both servings in there. I substituted panko for the fresh breadcrumbs in the recipe, since that's what I had available. I also didn't have grape tomatoes; however, I did have Campari tomatoes, which I quartered and stuck in there with the scallops. I used less butter in the breadcrumbs than the recipe specified, I think--maybe a tablespoon instead of two.
This was a really easy recipe. The herbed breadcrumbs were deliciously flavorful. The scallops were perfectly cooked through. The tomatoes provided a tangy complement to the sweet scallops. Everything worked beautifully, even if I did need to cook it a bit longer than the recipe specified, likely due to the different bakeware.
I used some of the fresh basil along with some fresh dill I had to make a yogurt-based dressing for the salad that accompanied the scallops. I thought about making some polenta to serve underneath the scallops when I plated them, but decided the dish would probably be filling enough, and it was. This will definitely be a dish I make again!
