For most untrained home cooks the thought of trying to sear scallops, without turning them into rubber bullets, can be frightening. Many people are afraid of burning the scallops and wind up with a pan that is not hot enough while some others get the pan too hot and use a low-temp oil like olive or canola oil. While this may be an effective way to send smoke signals to outer space it is not ideal for making delicious, crusted and semi translucent centered scallops. But guess what? It doesn't have to be difficult! Follow these simple tips I am going to provide you and you will be nailing scallops like a pro!
Tip 1: Dehydrate The Scallops
Now this is going to sound weird, and it's a trick a stumbled upon by accident, but you want to get as much moisture out of the scallops as you possibly can before you start cooking them. Scallops are filter feeders so they are quite literally full of water. What tends to happen in some cases is when the scallops begin to cook they release all of that moisture into the pan. Moisture is the enemy of a good hard sear on any type of meat and what winds up happenings is the scallops partially boil themselves. Instead of being cooked entirely via searing. To combat this line a baking sheet or plate with a few layers of paper towels and lay the scallops out with some spacing in between them and then refrigerate for approximately 1 - 2 hours prior to cooking them.
Tip 2: Get Your Pan HOT!
This is incredibly important and I eluded to the necessity of a hot in the opening of this article, but I can't stress enough that your pan needs to be extremely hot. On a scale of 1 - 10, it should be at an 8.5 - 9, at minimum. A good way to test your pan to make sure it is hot enough was mentioned in my piece on reverse searing steaks. Sprinkle a few drops of water into the pan and if they don't sizzle and evaporate almost immediately, your pan isn't hot enough. Either give the pan longer to come up to temp or increase the heat underneath it until the desired effect is achieved. Additionally, when you place the scallops in the pan start them around the perimeter of the pan and move clockwise from 12 o'clock to 11. This will help you keep track of which scallops need to be flipped first (and each should only be flipped once).
Tip 3: Use High-Temp Oil
For those that get Tip: 2 right, this is often times a stumbling point. It's great that you have the courage to get that pan smoking hot, but smoke is not something we want in the equation. Now a little smoke is unavoidable, but anyone who has put a low-temp oil in an extremely hot pan will tell you that is a great way to test all of the smoke detectors in your house. Worse than having a smoky and noisy house is that the burnt oil will taint the flavor and color of your scallops. To avoid this I recommend using an oil that can take the heat. Personally, I like to use grapeseed oil but any high-temp oil will do.
Put these tips to use next time you are making scallops and you will quickly gain a new level of confidence with being able to produce praise worthy seafood dishes every time you step into the kitchen!
