Skillet Scallops with Mead Sauce

Skillet Scallops with Mead Sauce, a side salad, and a glass of mead.

Large Scallops are one of the ocean's tastiest gifts. The rich tender meat melts in your mouth, bursting with a big but delicate seafood flavor. They are one of those foods that can be spoiled by over-treating them, so I keep the recipe to its barest essentials. With a cast-iron skillet, five minutes of burner time, and almost nothing else, you can present knock-your-socks-off scallops, easy as that!

Sometimes when my Honey is working evenings, I make these, tent the plates in tin-foil, and break speed limits bringing her scallops, a nice salad, and some iced herbal tea for her dinner break. It makes a wonderfully romantic meal for two, even in the front seat of a car! ...or maybe it's just her that makes it seem so romantic. In any case, at home I serve it with a glass of the same mead that goes into the sauce, and a pretty side salad as shown.

The only challenging ingredient is mead. If you really can't find any of this fine honey wine, then you can use white wine instead, but really scour your local markets, and even ask around among home-brewers for some before you give up. If that all fails, watch this space, because soon I'll post the basics of mead-brewing, so you can start making your own. 

The Recipe: Skillet Scallops with Mead Sauce

Whattya need?
6 large scallops
olive oil
2 tbsp butter
salt, pepper
Splash of mead
A cast iron skillet and a couple of paper towels
(Serves 2)

Whattya do?

Heat up your skillet over high heat, meanwhile drying the scallops and laying them out. 
Scatter a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper on them, both sides.
Pour a generous splash of olive oil, two or three tbsps, on the pan, and spread the scallops out on it with some distance between them, each on an end, not the round sides.
After about two minutes, flip them over quickly, still with space between them.
After another minute and a half, take them off and arrange them quickly on two small plates. The ends should be a golden brown, and don't worry if they don't seem to be done through; the heat from the ends will finish the cooking before they get to the table.

Nothing can replace a good skillet!

Add the butter to the pan, and as soon as it has melted, add the mead, enough to just briefly cover the bottom of the pan. It will start to boil and reduce immediately, so working quickly, scrape the scallop footprints up with the edge of a fork and stir the scrapings into the mead. When it has reduced to a few tbsns of sauce, usually less than a minute all together, pour it quickly over the scallops and serve.