A Light Saturday Lunch, redux ... scallops

Another one from Sophie's kitchen: quick, easy, delicious and, in this case, probably aphrodisiac as well, which definitely pushes all my buttons.

Just in case you're wondering, on Saturday mornings I head off to the market in Chambéry to pick up a week's supply of freshly-killed fruit and vegetables, and once the poor Alfa is groaning under the weight of all that plus the grocery shopping (do you know just how many packets of chocolate cereal a 14-year old goes through every week?) I stop off on the way home for lunch with Sophie. Who is a good friend - for the past 20 years or so - and my business partner's recently ex-wife. Which I suppose could make life complicated. I try not to think about that.

Whatever, after 15 or so years of Saturday lunches there, I occasionally try to push the karmic balance (or whatever) back in my favour by making lunch for the two of us, and as I don't always have that much time they tend to be simple, and this is one of them.

I did it a couple of months back, when coquilles St-Jacques were in season and even semi-affordable: on the other hand, given that they're about 20€/kg and for two of you 300gm is plenty, it's not really going to break the bank. Come to that, you can even use frozen scallops if that's what you've got. I've done it, and I'm still alive to tell the tale.

On the other hand, when I picked up these particular scallops from Carrefour*, someone very nearly did not get away alive, because the woman just ahead of me in the queue was asking loudly for scallops WITHOUT CORAL! I mean, how insane is that? You want to eat shellfish without their sex organs? Really odd. I thought vaguely of asking for my scallops with all the coral she didn't want thrown in for free, but realised that this was unlikely to come true so I just wandered off with my big packet of squishy molluscs under my arm and reflected on human frailty. And wondered what a Dalek would do in my place, but the answer to that one is pretty unspeakable.

Anyway, once you've arrived back with your bag of gastropods - or whatever they are, technically speaking - the fun begins. Carefully cut the coral off and put it aside - in the cat's bowl, for example. (No, don't do that. Not a good idea.) If your scallops are nice big ones, cut them in half - against the grain, you idiot - you should have disks about 1cm thick. Now take out your trusty frying pan and put it on to heat.

When it's nice and hot, add a good knob of butter (yeah, salted, not the devil's-spawn stuff) and when it's sizzling, stick in the scallops. After about a minute, turn them over, retrieve the coral from the cat's bowl and add that too. Then, after 30 seconds or so, add a half shot-glass of whisky and flambé the suckers. (This is optional, but I find it adds a smoky-sweet flavour which I personally rather like. Your call.) When the flames have subsided and you've convinced the fire brigade that it was a false alarm (you have to be quick, you do not want to overcook them or you will regret it, they should have started to turn opaque), slide everything into a bowl and go off and open the bottle of white.

A chardonnay is nice, muscat sec - if you can find it - is even better. So have a drink. Leave some, at least a large glass, you'll need it later. You may not be that hungry yet, in any case things can wait now, whilst you get the salad and the rice ready.

Don't rinse out the frying pan - we're not yet done with it.

I like Chinese-style steamed rice, which basically involves sticking about 120gm (for the two of you) rice into a saucepan and rinsing it repeatedly to get rid of the starch on the grains. Once that's done, add water until there's about an inch of water above the rice, and boil hell out of it. At some point you'll start to get great pits opening up in the rice - like volcanoes, or acne: turn the heat down low, stick a sheet of tinfoil over the top of the saucepan and fold it down around the edges, and put the lid on. In twenty minutes, you will have nice rice. Have another drink while you're waiting.

Oh, and make the salad. Or get your lunch date to do it. Whichever, I'll leave that to your discretion.

When the rice is done, it's time to finish the scallops. Put the frying pan back on really hot and stick the leftover glass of wine in: you may need to open another bottle for this. When it's reduced by half, add all the liquid from the scallops - there will be quite a bit - and reduce some more. Then - the good part - turn the heat down low, add some chives and garlic, and a good quarter-cup of sour cream. Let that reduce too. You probably do not want to let it boil at this point, or you will have a curdled mess which is pretty unappetising. If this happens, order in a pizza. And chuck away the rice.

(Since I discovered l'ail lyophilisé, I use that all the time. It saves a lot of bother. But you can always finely chop a few cloves of garlic and then crush them with the flat of your knife; it does as good a job as a garlic press and there's less washing-up - and a garlic press is a bitch to clean. Whatever.)

When the sauce has thickened, fling the scallops and coral back in there just to reheat for a minute (that's about 60 seconds, if you were wondering). Serve it right now, with the rice, bread (of course) and the salad - which you were supposed to make while the rice was cooking.

(No photos - again - sorry. Didn't have my camera with me that time either. Piss-poor effort, I know. Try to do better next time.)

*Big supermarket chain in France