Scallops.

I have said it before working as a Cook sometimes means you get to play with some wonderful  ingredients. Working at the Dunstanburgh Castle Hotel means at the moment I have direct contact with suppliers when I place my orders. We use Taylors of North Sheilds for most of our seafood where I have built a bit of a rapport with the sales girl Joanne. Most phone calls involve 2 minutes of putting my order in and then 10 minutes of an update from her on her social life. To say it resembles a Jilly Cooper novel would be an understatement. In fact I think Joanne should become a Mills and Boon novelist ! Anyway she keeps me entertained with her stories and as a Chef sometimes it does not seem like you have a social life so its nice to share hers !
The other day in the brief two minutes she talks about seafood she mentioned she had big scallops on offer. 12 scallops with no roe on them for £10. A bargain I thought so I promptly brought some. Not for the Hotels guests but for me..! ha ha ! I paid for them so don't worry boss !
Today on my day off I thought about having them for my Tea but how to serve them was a bit of a problem. There are some foods like Scallops that don't really need anything to accompany them. Cooking them with a bit of oil and butter till golden and then take them out of the pan and while they rest put a good squeeze of lemon juice in your pan and rather more butter than the Doctor would like and make a warm lemon butter sauce and drizzle over the scallops...simple but fantastic !
Anyway bacon usually goes well Scallops so I went down that line and in the end came up with Scallops with Serrano ham and a few mixed leaves.
First place your scallops in a bowl drizzle some olive oil on them and gently massage and then season with salt. Not black pepper yet as it will just burn because you need to get your pan smoking.
When the pan is smoking place your scallops one at a time into the pan. This is to try and prevent the Scallops cooling the pan and you don't want this as all you will end up with is boiled Scallops.

When I had coloured the Scallops I took them out of the pan and wrapped them in the Serrano Ham and then placed them back into the pan to colour the ham. When the Ham was nicely coloured too I took that out of the pan and let them rest while I made the warm dressing. All I did was deglaze the pan with a splash of White Wine and let it reduce to a nice tablespoon of syrup.
I arranged my leaves in my serving bowl, placed the Scallops in the centre and then drizzled the pan juice over the scallops. I served it with a thick slice of rustic bread.
Taylors Seafood have a shop in Jesmond which is on the outskirts of Newcastle but if you want all the sights and smells of a fish market pot down to their other shop in North Sheilds where they have a amazing array of seafood. And watch out for Joannes first novel she will make Jackie Collins look like a nun ! ha ha !

Scallops wrapped in Serrano ham with a few extras thrown in like sliced Chorizo.