wednesday, march 11 , 2020. the washington post eZ ee E3
Scallops take less than 10
minutes to sear on both sides,
which leaves plenty of time —
even on a hectic evening — to
make this classic, luscious
French sauce. If you’ve never
prepared beurre blanc, which is
made with wine, vinegar, shallots
and lots and lots of butter, it can
seem intimidating, but it
requires only about 15 minutes of
your attention, a pan and a
whisk.
First, minced shallots, vinegar
and wine are reduced until the
liquid nearly evaporates. Then,
cream is added and, with the
heat on low, pats of butter are
whisked into the mixture.
At the end of that constant
whisking, you’ll have a creamy
emulsion that turns those golden
scallop disks into a luxurious
entree. In his cookbook, Sifton
recommends finishing the meal
with a “neat spoonful of rice and
a delicate thatch of roasted
asparagus, on a table covered
with a cloth and a few low
candles winking off the wine
glasses. Fancy!”
Fancy, indeed.
[email protected]recommended putting them in a
brine before cooking.
Sifton suggests a brining
method for even the dry-packed
scallops, so we tried making
them brined and unbrined. The
brining did result in tender
scallops that stood a bit taller
and firmer, but it wasn’t
essential to success.
If you want to try brining,
here’s what Sifton recommends:
Combine 2 cups of kosher salt in
2 cups of boiling water and stir
until the salt dissolves. Then, add
8 cups cold water. Stir again and
let the brine cool to room
temperature. Add the scallops
and brine for 10 minutes. Then,
rinse the scallops under cold
running water, dry them well,
and place them on a clean paper-
towel-lined large plate or baking
sheet. Cover the scallops with a
towel and refrigerate for at least
1 hour but no longer than 2, or,
he said, the scallops will turn
salty. If you brine the scallops,
you will not need to salt them
later when cooking.
On a weeknight, however, I’d
skip that brining process and
spend more time on the saucing.roasted. When they’re combined
in this spinach salad with a
tangy, creamy herb dressing and
roasted bell peppers, the
chickpeas sing a resounding
bass note.
They’re so good that the
second time I made the recipe, I
doubled the garbanzos: I wanted
more in the salad, and I also
knew that I would not be able to
resist eating some out of hand
before I even managed to dress,
toss and serve it.
[email protected]Spinach Salad With Blackened Chickpeas
4 to 6 servings
In h is cookbook, Bryant Te rry includes a recipe for making your own
blackened seasoning, but a store-bought version works well, too.
Adapted from “Vegetable Kingdom” by T erry (Ten Speed Press,
2020).Ingredients
lTwo (15-ounce) cans no-salt-
added chickpeas, drained,
rinsed and thoroughly patted
dry
l^3 / 4 cup (6 ounces) silken toful2 tablespoons minced shallot
l2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
l1 tablespoon minced fresh dill,
plus dill fronds for garnish
l1 tablespoon fresh parsley
leavesl^1 / 4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
l^3 / 4 teaspoon kosher salt, or
more to taste
l^1 / 2 teaspoon freshly ground
white pepper, divided, or more
to taste (may substitute black
pepper)
l1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons
safflower or another neutral
oil, divided
l1 tablespoon blackened
seasoning (such as Zatarain’s,
Paul Prudhomme or Old Bay)
l12 ounces fresh spinach, tornOnce, many years
ago, a fellow food
writer sidled up
to me and said: “I
don’t really cook
with spices. Do
you? I just like
everything to
taste fresh.”
I couldn’t have
disagreed more. I
adore cooking with spices, and I
find them key to adding layers of
flavor to vegetables, to
unlocking the secrets of dishes
from around the world, to
getting out of almost any
cooking rut. Spices, I said, can
make anything taste more, not
less, fresh.
If Bryant Te rry had been
beside me, I bet he would have
made the same arguments and
probably many more. The
author of the stunning new book
“Vegetable Kingdom” (Te n Speed
Press, 2020), Terry is an
unabashed champion of bold
spices and spice blends. The
seasonings chapter at the end of
his book — with recipes for
za’atar, dukkah, Creole
seasoning, berbere and more —
is alone worth the price.
Spices are not worth anything
if you don’t know how to apply
them, of course. Te rry sprinkles
cumin seeds on oven-roasted
baby beets, playing up the
vegetable’s earthiness. He stirs a
pinch of ground cinnamon into
the aromatic base of a tomato
sauce for mushroom-stuffed
cabbage. And he dusts chickpeas
in blackened seasoning, the
same type of blend Paul
Prudhomme used to invent
blackened redfish and turn it
into a Cajun classic.
I’m a self-confessed chickpea
obsessive, so the latter
treatment hooked me. Te rry
doesn’t actually blacken the
chickpeas (so no need to open
the windows or turn off the
smoke alarms) but tosses them
in the seasoning after they’re
Blackened seasoning turns chickpeas into the stars of this spinach salad
tom mccorkle for the Washington Post; food styling by lisa cherkasky for the Washington Postinto bite-size pieces
l2 whole jarred roasted red
peppers, drained and sliced
into^1 / 2 -inch pieces (from one
16-ounce jar)
l1 tablespoon finely grated
lemon zest, for garnishSteps
lPosition a rack in the middle of
the oven and preheat to 350 de-
grees. Line a large rimmed bak-
ing sheet with parchment pa-
per.
lLet the chickpeas air-dry on a
plate for 10 to 20 minutes while
you prepare the dressing.
lIn a blender, combine the tofu,
shallot, lemon juice, dill, pars-
ley, mustard,^3 / 4 teaspoon salt
and^1 / 4 teaspoon pepper. Puree
until creamy, t hen taste and add
more salt and pepper if needed.
lWhen the chickpeas are dry,
transfer them to a large bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon oil and toss to
combine. Spread the chickpeas
in an even layer on the baking
sheet. Bake, shaking the pan
every 15 minutes, for about
45 minutes, until browned and
starting to turn crispy.
lImmediately return the chick-
peas to the bowl you had used
earlier, drizzle with the remain-
ing 2 teaspoons oil, and sprinkle
with the blackened seasoning.
To ss to combine, transfer back
to the baking sheet and let cool
for at least 15 minutes. Ta ste,
and add salt if desired.
lIn a salad bowl, combine the
spinach and roasted bell pep-
pers. Stir the dressing a few
times and lightly dress the vege-
tables. Add the chickpeas,
sprinkle with the remaining(^1) / 4 teaspoon pepper, and lightly
drizzle with the dressing. Gar-
nish with the lemon zest and
dill fronds and serve.
nutrition | Per serving (based on 6): 140
calories, 7 g protein, 16 g carbohydrates, 6 g
fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 660
mg sodium, 5 g dietary fiber, 2 g sugar
recipe tested by Joe yonan; email questions
to [email protected]
Joe Yonan
Weeknight
Vegetarian
Ingredients
For the scallops
l4 tablespoons neutral oil, such
as canola or grapeseed, or
clarified butter, divided
lKosher salt
lFreshly ground black pepper
l 16 extra-large sea scallops,
preferably dry-packed, the
tough muscle on the side
removed
For the beurre blanc
l^1 / 4 cup dry white wine, such as
a chenin blanc or albariño
l^1 / 4 cup white wine vinegar
l1 medium shallot, peeled and
finely minced (about 2
tablespoons)
l^1 / 3 cup heavy cream
lPinch of kosher salt
l1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted
butter, cut into tablespoon-size
pieces, chilled
Steps
lMake t he scallops: Heat a large,
stainless-steel saute pan over
high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of
the oil and swirl to coat the
pan. When the oil is shimmer-
ing and close to smoking,
sprinkle a little salt and pepper
on the scallops. Working in
batches to avoid crowding the
pan, place the scallops in the
pan, making sure they do not
touch.
lCook, undisturbed, until the
bottoms of the scallops are a
dark golden brown, about 3
minutes, then, using tongs,
carefully turn each scallop and
Maybe you’ve had
a less than stellar
experience with
scallops. Either
they were hard as
pencil erasers or
so mushy they
collapsed under
your fork.
If so, please try
again. Not only
are scallops easy
to cook, but they are so mild,
they can be the perfect protein
for a variety of cooking styles and
sauces.
The key to cooking scallops in
not overcooking them. As Sam
Sifton, food editor at the New
York Times, once wrote: “Indeed,
there is almost no such thing as
an undercooked scallop.”
In his new cookbook “See You
on Sunday” (Random House,
2020), Sifton includes a dead-
simple recipe for caramelized
scallops: The extra-large sea
scallops are given a dark sear in a
neutral oil or clarified butter, so
both sides end up with a golden-
brown crust.
The path to getting that
perfect sear is to dry the scallops
well, have the fat hot — close to
smoking — and avoid
overcrowding the pan. For his
recipe, Sifton even recommends
cooking them in more than one
pan to prevent overcrowding and
have them all ready at the same
time.
He finishes the scallops with a
generous hit of fresh lemon juice,
or he gets Sunday-dinner fancy
by draping them in the classic
French beurre blanc.
Finding the freshest,
untreated, dry-packed scallops is
also a key to success.
“Wet” scallops are chemically
treated with a solution of water
and sodium tripolyphosphate so
that they stay moist longer.
This can make the scallops
mushier, and some folks say they
can taste a chemical-like flavor
when they cook them. Fresh
seafood enthusiasts will tell you
to visit a reputable market and
ask for freshly shucked “dry”
scallops so that you get a pinkish
scallop with firm edges.
If you’re like me, however, you
buy your weeknight dinner
ingredients at a neighborhood
grocery, so you can check the
fresh seafood case and ask if they
have dry scallops. Or, consider
that frozen scallops may be the
best way to go. I tried buying
them fresh and sampled a couple
of frozen varieties when testing
Sifton’s recipe. They all turned
out well.
To defrost scallops, transfer
them from the packaging to a
large bowl. Cover the bowl and
refrigerate overnight.
If you can find only wet
scallops, several sources
Ann
Maloney
Dinner in
minutes
Scallops should not instill fear and can be ready with a simple sear
Caramelized Scallops
With Beurre Blanc
8 servings
Beurre blanc is a sauce that’s
worth the effort. For a classic
preparation, you would strain t he
shallots before serving, but feel
free to leave them for more flavor
and texture. And if your scallops
are lovely and tender, you can
skip the sauce and just serve them
with a fresh squeeze of lemon
juice.
Serve with steamed asparagus
and a green salad.
Adapted from “See You on Sun-
day” by Sam Sifton (Random
House, 2020).
allow the other side to cook
until golden, an additional 2
minutes or so. Repeat with
remaining oil and scallops.
Place the cooked scallops on a
platter and keep warm.
lMake the beurre blanc: Com-
bine the wine, vinegar and
shallot in a medium saucepan
set over medium-high heat and
bring to a boil. Let the mixture
cook, swirling the pan occa-
sionally, until the liquid has
nearly evaporated, about 5
minutes.
lAdd the cream and salt and
bring to a boil for about 1
minute.
lReduce the heat to low, add a
pat of butter, and use a whisk to
mix it into the sauce. Repeat
with the remaining butter, add-
ing a few pats at a time, whisk-
ing constantly and removing
the pan from the heat occasion-
ally to allow the sauce to cool.
(Too much heat will break the
emulsion.) Remove the sauce
from the heat. For a classic
beurre blanc, strain the sauce
before serving and discard the
minced shallot, or serve as is.
lTransfer 2 scallops per person
to warmed plates, drizzle with
the beurre blanc and serve.
nutrition | Per serving: 350 calories, 10 g
protein, 2 g carbohydrates, 33 g fat, 19 g
saturated fat, 90 mg cholesterol, 135 mg
sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 0 g sugar
recipe tested by ann maloney; email
questions to [email protected]
stacy Zarin goldberg for the Washington Post; food styling by lisa cherkasky for the Washington Post
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