Thursday's Dinner

Scallops sounded like an interesting recipe to try, it was delicious. Too bad I overcooked it a bit. Still, it was yummy.

Recipe by Daniel Myers

This has to be one of the lightest and most "modern" of the medieval recipes I've come across so far. The white garlic sauce is a bit too tart on its own, but when paired with the scallops it's perfect. The sweetness of the onions and the fine spice powder adds to the flavor of the scallops without overpowering it. On the whole, this dish would be great for a fancy dinner.

If you can't find verjuice, use 1/2 cup white wine and 1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 pound sea scallops (large)
2 Tbsp. green onions, chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil
pinch powder fine
pinch salt

2 slices bread
1/2 cup verjuice
1 clove garlic

Tear bread into pieces and place in a small bowl. Add garlic and verjuice, and stir until mixed. Allow to sit until the bread turns to mush, then strain the liquid into a small saucepan and discard the solids. Bring to a low boil and simmer until thick, stirring constantly.

Sautee onions and scallops in olive oil. Place onto serving plate and cover with sauce. Serve hot.

Source [Le Viandier de Taillevent, J. Prescott (trans.)]: Scallops. Pick them over well, scald and wash them, brown them in oil with chopped onions and Spice Powder, and eat them with good White Garlic [Sauce].

Source [Le Viandier de Taillevent, J. Prescott (trans.)]: White Garlic [Sauce]. Crush garlic and bread, and steep in verjuice.

Source:

France, 14th c.





No matter what I did, the sauce never really thickened. Originally, I poured the wine/lemon mixture on to bread with a garlic clove and then strained it but it ended up never thickening and reducing too much. I then added white cooking wine, garlic powder, a small amount of bread crumbs, and lemon and...it still didn't really thicken. The sauce was good though and tasted yummy with the sweetness of the scallops.

The scallops were fresh (I got them at the amish market an hour before I cooked them so that's fresh, right? ;-) ) but I just wasn't paying attention and overcooked them.

For a side, I went with fried mushrooms, of course. :-)

Edit:

So...um...I'm allergic to scallops it turns out. Not badly but enough to avoid them. I do not like hives. I do not like my tummy acting up. It was only slightly worse than my corn allergy which is enough to avoid scallops all together. Oh well...

Trout tomorrow!