My husband Mike is a very good cook. One of my favorite dishes he makes is scallops. Before tasting Mike’s scallops, I did not think I liked them. When I ordered them at restaurants, what I got was rubbery and bland.
Let me introduce you to some really good scallops. Thanks Mike for letting me share.
Mike likes to serve these with rice pilaf and a vegetable, and of course, my homemade bread. Sometimes he will do a couple of scallops for each of us with a filet.
You will need:
Fresh jumbo scallops. Mike likes to get big ones about the size of a silver dollar, about 1 to 1 ½ inches thick. If eating scallops as your sole entrée, you will want about 4 scallops per person. If you only can find small scallops, you may want more. They do shrink when cooking. They only had a small size when we were at the grocery store, and they were expensive.
A clove of garlic, minced
Honey
Butter
White wine, such as pinot grigio or reisling, whatever you have
Sweet chili sauce, we use Mae Ploy brand
Heat a tablespoon of butter and 2 tablespoons of wine in a lidded large skillet over medium heat.
Rinse the scallops, patting dry with a paper towel.
Put the scallops in the skillet, making sure to not overcrowd them. Spoon the butter wine sauce over the scallops and cover. Heat for about 3 minutes. The scallops will render a lot of liquid, so remove the lid so the sauce will reduce. If you have more than a half cup of liquid, you will need to spoon some out.
Turn the scallops over and squeeze a little honey over the top of the scallops. Then add the minced garlic in the pan. Cook on this side for about 5 minutes until they brown on the underside. The sauce will start to brown.
Turn them and cook for another minute, occasionally spooning the pan sauce over the top. Then add the sweet chili sauce over each scallop, about a teaspoon per scallop. Cook for another two minutes.
Keep an eye on the underside. You want it to brown, but not scorch. Do not overcook; the garlic will get bitter and the scallops will turn rubbery. Keep stirring the sauce around.
You must keep an eye on your temperature and the scallops. Do not walk away! If your scallops are browning too fast, turn down the temperature. If you have smaller scallops, turn down the temperature.
Now that both sides are browned, the scallops will be a bit smaller due to loosing some liquid. The scallops should be done at this point. Plate them and spoon some of the sauce over the top. This sauce is golden! Use it to flavor your rice or sop it up with your bread. Yumm! The scallops should be tender and flavorful.
