My neighborhood store is having a scallop sales this week, at 50% off. A regular $19.95 per pound scallops are now only $9.95. I had to load up these amazing, fresh, and huge scallops just because of the sales.
I love scallops, I would eat them every day if they are cheap. It’s one of the best ingredients from the sea.
There are two kinds of scallops, natural/untreated and treated with water. When it comes to scallops, the former is the ones you wanted to get.
They are milky and creamy white in color, sometimes with a slight pale yellow or pink tint, but they are soft to the touch (not slippery). The flesh smells of the sea, and they are absolutely briny, sweet, and delightful. They are expensive.
The scallops treated with water are less expensive but trust me, you don’t want to get those. They are smooth and slippery to the touch, translucent, and when rinsed with water, the water bubbles up.
Those are the clear indications that they are not natural but treated with chemicals and water. Avoid them because they taste nothing like the natural and “real” scallops, in fact, they are pretty much bland with no sweet or briny flavors.
Now, when you have fresh and natural scallops, you need only very basic ingredients to prepare them. Olive oil, butter, garlic, a splash or two of white wine, salt, ground black pepper, a pinch of cayenne pepper.
That’s all, and you will have these amazing and truly scrumptious garlic scallops that go so well on their own, or over some simple pasta such as parmesan garlic noodles or easy spaghetti.
This recipe is inspired by the Garlic Scallops recipe on Ciao Florentina. You can also try my Brown Butter Scallops recipe.
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Mahesh Patel
Looks Tasty n healthy
E. Esbenshade
To get the scallops brown, the garlic is super burnt. Not so good….!!
Rasa Malaysia
Did you push the garlic to the site so they don’t get burned? If not, you can pan-sear the scallops first before and set them aside, then add them bac after you saute the garlic.
Timothy Hinchliff
I think it wrong to say that you do not want to use the “wet” scallops. The thing is, in many parts of the country the “dry” scallops are very hard to find. Does that mean you can’t have flavorable scallops? Not at all. You can let the “white” ones soak in 1L of water, 2 TBS kosher salt and 1/4 c lemon juice for 30 minutes and the flavors will come out to a fair degree. Not quite as good as the dry, but still fairly good.
Rasa Malaysia
Good tips thanks Timothy! :)
Brandi
My scallops don’t specify if they are natural
Or not. How can I tell?
Rasa Malaysia
The natural scallops (untreated) smells like seafood. It has a nice soft touch and not slippery or soapy. It’s also yellowish in color. The ones treated with water looks plump, smooth to the touch and no smell. The taste of natural scallops vs treated scallops are day and night. Treated ones have no taste whatsoever.
CC
Hi,
Can I use sake instead of white wine?
Thanks
Rasa Malaysia
Yes!
Jill
How long do you sear on each side? I need a little more direction.
Rasa Malaysia
Sear about 1 minute (uninterrupted), then turn. The surface should turn brown. It all depends on how big your scallop is, some takes longer to cook through.
Renelle
What kind of white wine?
Rasa Malaysia
Any kind of white wine will do.
Crab Dynasty
The preparation of them was easy, and they came out great. They sear pretty quickly on each side (about 1.5-2 mins on each side) carfull not to overcook or rhey will turn to rubber. Along with the fresh garlic, I also sprinkled some Old Bay on top of them. Let’s just say, they were “The other side of heaven.”
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks for trying my garlic scallops.