ROLL MAGAZINE.COM: November 2007: Creative Living: Roll Cuisine Corner, full page

Roll Cuisine Corner with Pierre-Luc Moey

The Sea Scallop is a gift to the culinary world. Unlike fellow bivalve mollusks like oysters, clams, and mussels, scallops are highly mobile, basically developing into one big muscle… firm, yet tender and slightly sugary. Fresh scallops provide a healthy and tasteful foundation for innovative recipe possibilities.

The scallop gained great prestige during the medieval era. Pilgrims visiting the shrine of St. James in Spain began to use empty scallop shells for both eating and begging. The scallop and its shell quickly became a symbol of this magnificent shrine, with people using them to decorate their doorways as well as their coats of arms. In honor of the shrine, they were called the shell of St. James, now best known by their translated French name of Coquille St. Jacques.

Scallops are migratory, and are found in all the world’s oceans. The great scallop is abundant in the Mediterranean, while the sea and bay scallop are found concentrated in the Atlantic Ocean off North America. When you buy scallops locally (Hannafords, Gadaletos, etc.), or in New York City, you will probably get North American. Recent sources have been from New Jersey. Don’t hesitate to ask your fishmonger where they’re from, and when they arrived.

We are at the beginning of the season for scallops, which runs from October through May. When you buy scallops, they should have flesh that is white and firm and have no evidence of browning. Smell is also a good indicator of freshness with fresh scallops being either odorless or having a slightly sweet scent. Since a slightly “off” smell cannot be detected through plastic, if you have the option, purchase displayed scallops as opposed to those that are prepackaged.

We’re at the end of the peach season, so let’s use those last peaches for this light starter dish.

Scallops with peach and thyme salad
(Serves 4)
12 medium-sized scallops
2 large sprigs of thyme
3 ripe peaches (make sure they smell fragrant and sweet)
1 lemon
1 bottle of olive oil (extra virgin, of course)
Salt and cracked pepper

Wash the peaches thoroughly and slice, then add the thyme leaves, squeeze the lemon over it, add a little cracked pepper and olive oil, and carefully mix together.

Dry the scallops and sprinkle them with salt on both sides. Sauté them in a hot sauté pan, each side, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes max. Scallops should be cooked for only a few minutes, since exposure to too much heat will cause them to become tough and fibrous. Once the scallops are nice and golden brown (caused by the Maillard reaction), serve immediately.

Put the peach salad in the middle of each (4) plate. Add 3 scallops
on top of each one, then drizzle with a little olive oil and some
cracked pepper.

The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar, usually requiring heat. Like caramelization, it is a form of non-enzymatic browning, where the reactive carbonyl group of the sugar interacts with the nucleophilic amino group of the amino acid, and interesting but oddly characterized odor and flavor molecules result. This process accelerates in an alkaline environment because the amino groups do not neutralize.

This reaction is the basis of the flavoring industry, since the type of amino acid determines the resulting flavor.

In the process, hundreds of different flavor compounds are created. These compounds in turn break down to form yet more new flavor compounds, in almost limitless combinations. Each type of food has a very distinctive set of flavor compounds that are formed during the Maillard reaction. It is these same compounds that flavor scientists have used over the years to create artificial flavors.

Although used since ancient times, the reaction is named after the chemist Louis-Camille Maillard who investigated it in the 1910s.

Pierre-Luc Moeys is co-owner & a chef at Oriole 9, Woodstock.