Scallops and sardines

 

Scallops on spinach
(a leftover half a small potato snuck in there too)

The title of this post alone should clue you in that I’ve been eating quite a few meals in solitary splendor because the Burtons’ schedule is busy this time of year. Sardines and scallops are two things I would never serve for family dinner.

Sea or ocean scallops because they are expensive, about $40 a lb. I find I am satisfied with a quarter lb. which gives me three fat scallops. For the family I’d probably have to have a pound and a quarter—not sure if Jacob would surprise me or not. But either way that’s beyond the budget for a weeknight dinner.

I have a friend who assures me that when I think I’m buying scallops, I’m buying shark. Not true if you shop with a respectable fishmonger—I shop at Central Market and trust them. But there are unscrupulous fishermen who flavor shark or skate to taste like scallops. These substitutions are caught in unsustainable ways, so you take a risk with your health if you eat them. How can you tell? Fake scallops are perfect cylinders, as though they’d be stamped out of a machine. Nature never creates two things quite alike, so real scallops are not uniform in size or appearance. Also they have a small muscle on the side that can be removed before cooking.

Scallops are versatile You can cover them with a gratin sauce or make traditional Coquilles St/ Jacques, which puts the scallops in a wine-and-mushroom sauce, with mashed potatoes piped around the edge of the dish (my mom had a huge shell dish she used for this). But to me, nothing beats sauteed scallops in lemon butter sauce, So the other night I had a terrific dinner. Here’s what I did.

Sauteed scallops with fresh spinach

I forgot one stop: refrigerate scallops for 20-30 minutes, uncovered, before cooking. This lets them dry out a bit and makes it easier to achieve a brown crust.

I sauteed spinach in a generous amount of butter, added some salt and pepper, drained it, and put it in a soup plate (you can use a regular plate—I’m just having fun using my soup plates for a lot of things these days).

I added more butter to the skillet and heated it to high. I seasoned with salt and pepper and, when butter was really hot, placed them in the skillet. It’s important not to move them at this point so that a crust forms. Some chefs say one minute on one side. I did two minutes on one side and then flipped them for one more minute. The big thing about scallops is you don’t want to overcook them because they’ll turn to rubber. For years, Jordan would never eat them outside my kitchen for fear they were overcooked. I was careful dislodging scallops from skillet, but I still left some brown behind. A real chef who has mastered this can get a nice crisp uniform crust. After putting the scallops on the spinach, I lowered the heat a bit and squeezed the juice of about half a lemon into the remaining butter, scraping up any brown bits. I poured that sauce over the scallops and spinach.

Sardines

Sardines are a different matter entirely—no one else in the house will eat them, though I doubt they’ve ever tried (they are good at deciding ahead of a taste that they don’t like things). People sometimes get sardines and anchovies mixed up—anchovies are much small, much saltier, and stronger in flavor. The milder sardines are a good substitute for tuna—the meat is mild, rich in protein and omega-3 acids which improve your cognition and general health. They’re generally salty to some degree, but they do not have high levels of mercury as tuna does. I’ve had sardines packed in mustard sauce and tomato sauce—the latter was surprisingly good—but I’ve never had fresh. I buy them canned in oil.

You can broil or roast sardines with lemon and herbs, put them in pasta, add them to salads, grill them, put them in puff pastry. On one of my home alone evenings recently, I had sardines on toast. Here’s what I did:

Toast baguette slices—I think I fixed four. While they are still warm, rub them “aggressively” with a cut garlic clove. Then butter lightly. Top with a tomato slice, sardines (they are hard to get out of the can, especially the first one, so you may get bits and pieces, but that doesn’t matter). Top that with slivers of sweet onion—I happened to have pickled onion in the refrigerator so that’s what I used. Drizzle with lemon and olive oil. These are messy to eat but oh so good!

My ex-husband used to make sardine salad, an idea I’m sure he got from his mother who cooked a lot of traditional Jewish food: Drain and mash a can of sardines with salt, pepper, and lots of lemon. Good as a spread on crackers or a sandwich filling.

Don’t let the fishy notion scare you away. Sardines are great for a snack, an appetizer, or dinner alone.

Sardines on toast