This month's recipe: St Quay Style Scallops

Recipes

In the 17th century, people living on the coast hardly ever ate any scallops, and, during the 18th century, they were only eaten during food shortages.
During the 19th century, even if scallops were still harvested as in earlier times, their gastronomic status underwent a drastic change. They were no longer something to fall back on when food was short, but a product produced by the fishing industry and marketed like other fish products.

The Grand Escoffier (1846-1935), a world-famous figure of French gastronomy, called the scallop "la pèlerine" (the pilgrim). Under this name, this famous chef exported delicious scallops throughout Europe.

Scallops are famous for their excellent "gustative qualities" (flavour and texture).
There are four generally accepted ways of cooking them:

• lightly fried,
• poached,
• baked,
• and steamed.

They can also be eaten raw, or marinated.
The restaurants in St Quay- Portrieux offer a wide variety of scallop recipes:

• scallop brochette with Brouilly wine,
• scallops with mustard grains,
• fricassee of scallops with frayed chicory...

It must be realised that the species is not the only criterion governing the texture and flavour of the product. For instance, a fresh product will always have much more flavour than a frozen one. And in terms of freshness, you can hardly do better than the Pecten Maximus!
Given that the regulations only allow very short fishing periods (only 30 to 45 minutes per day) the scallops arrive at the fish auction practically as soon as they come out of the sea, and very quickly get to the fish wholesalers and onto the tables in the restaurants.

You can get an unpleasant surprise in that scallops can lose up to half their weight on being cooked. In this case, you have been sold scallops that have been soaked beforehand; scallops behave like sponges, and can easily absorb water. This soaking is strictly forbidden, and the French food inspection authorities make regular checks in order to catch swindlers who do this.

With a nutritional value of 106 calories per 100 g of cooked flesh, scallops are highly recommended for getting back fitness and vigour. They also contain a large quantity of proteins (23.4 g per 100 g of cooked flesh), of carbohydrates (up to 10 g) and of group B vitamins. On the other hand, they contain small quantity of lipids (fats).
The most significant minerals and trace elements contained in scallops are sulphur, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc.