Fishbox Guide | Kings & Queens How to cook our amazing scallops
Thursday, March 15, 2018 : 2:42 PM
Our Scallops are some of the best you will find anywhere in the world, we have 2 types of Scallops at Fishbox King Scallops and Queen Scallops. King scallops can grow to 17 cm across, and live for up to 20 years. Queen scallops are a different species, not just little specimens. They’re much smaller than king scallops, growing to about nine centimetres when they’re between six and eight years old. These wonderfully juicy tasty little shellfish can come to you hand dived still in the shell or already vacuum packed. If they are still in the shell then you will need to shuck them, this is easier than you think but take care not to cut yourself when doing it. If you get live scallops in the shell then the shells should be tightly closed after you give them a tap. Sometimes shellfish will open when in transit but this is just to regulate their heat in the box.
use a shucking knife, a sharp knife to release the meat. Discard the attached muscle, skirt and black stomach sack. Inside, you will also find a vivid orange roe (also called coral), which is often discarded but is edible. Rinse several times in cold water to remove sand or grit.
See our blog on how to shuck Scallops
Cooking Scallops
Always remember to pat your scallops dry with some kitchen roll before cooking and don’t put too many in the pan at once. The easiest way to cook a Scallop is to pan fry it, you want to have a little bit of caramelized crust on it and it still to be translucent in the middle, it is a little tricky getting the perfect timing as overcooking will make them very firm, if they are undercooked they will be mushy but if they a springy then all hail the perfect Scallop. A general rule of thumb is to cook on one side for 2 minutes then flip them over for 10 sec- 2min depending and keep an eye on them like a hawk.
There are of course other ways of enjoying these beautiful morsels like deep frying them in the batter instead of usual fish and chips or cooking them en-papillote in a stock, wine, water or milk. This keeps in the juiciness of these little beauties. You can eat scallops raw in fact Magnus is partial to a raw scallop straight from the shell or barely raw using a ceviche which uses the acidity in the sauce to marinade the raw scallops.
Freezing
If you would like to freeze them – you must shuck them and trim them first and put in a normal freezer bag. You can freeze them up to 5 days after receiving them.
Whichever way you like them, these are the king and queens of the shellfish family and we are very proud of our scallops at Fishbox
For some recipe ideas on our amazing scallops click here
