In his intro Bourdain unloads a diatribe about the difference between real sea scallops and various other types, variously marinaded or too small, but never mentions the roe, which I bet he discarded, as I have heard it is done on the Eastern seaboard, if not the whole of northern America.


16 scallops on their own are rich and delicious, but lets go to town, okay.. OK? We are going to need the following: 1 cup fumet(that’s the fish stock I made last week), 1 shallot, 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp clarified butter, half a cup each heavy cream and champagne, lemon juice, chives, salt and pepper.

 
First lets make clarified butter. Real easy. Just heat up butter slowly until it melts, sift the scum off the top and pour off the yellow stuff(the stuff you want), leaving behind the scum that sank.

lightly fry the sliced shallot in butter, add the fumet, simmer, reduce, add the cream, simmer, season and set aside.

“As you may have already noticed, you’re only going to need half a cup of that Champagne, and since you’ve had to crack a whole bottle, and its going to go flat anyway, you may as well start drinking”

Season with S & P and fry till crispy and golden-brown in all that clarified butter then remove from pan. Tip off remaining fat and appreciate the remaining delicious bits of stuck-on goodness (as we have learned, this is the ‘fond’), before stirring in the Champagne. When it has reduced so it sticks on the back of spoon – but in my case it is about to erupt in flames, as I had entered into an unrelated discussion on cooking almonds – add the creamy sauce that has been sitting to one side.


Whisk the two together, remove from heat, add the lemon juice and chives and pour over the scallops.

“Take a big hit of the Champagne and stagger to the table”.

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