Sauteeing scallops for 20 minutes !!??

AT said:

I just saw a "chef" on the cooking segment of the local news making vanilla scallops. He sauteed
the poor things in butter, oil and vanilla extract for 20 minutes (snip)

It must've been like eating hockey pucks!

Quoted message said:

Yuck.

I suppose it depends on the size of the scallops and the temperature of the butter/oil. No way would
I add vanilla to an already sweet-tasting scallop.

Jill

AT said:

I just saw a "chef" on the cooking segment of the local news making vanilla scallops. He sauteed
the poor things in butter, oil and vanilla extract for 20 minutes. One of the anchors tasted the
dish and said "Mmmmmmm, it's really nice, kinda sweet." She said nothing of the texture, though.
It must've been like eating hockey pucks! Yuck.

20 minutes??????? "poor things" is an understatement. I like to plonk them down on a hot pan and
sear them on each side and eat them while they are still a little raw in the middle. I just can't
imagine a scallop being edible after 20 minutes, even if cooked on low heat for that long.

AT said:

I just saw a "chef" on the cooking segment of the local news making vanilla scallops. He sauteed
the poor things in butter, oil and vanilla extract for 20 minutes. One of the anchors tasted the
dish and said "Mmmmmmm, it's really nice, kinda sweet." She said nothing of the texture, though.
It must've been like eating hockey pucks! Yuck.

Unless they cook tener afdter a time. Calamari is like that. Either do it very fast or very long and
it will be tender. In between it is like eating a rubber band.

I've never heard of long cooking time on scallps though. Nor am I going to try it at $10 a pound.
--
Ed [email hidden] pages.cthome.netedhomeOpen ↗

Ed said:

I've never heard of long cooking time on scallps though. Nor am I going to try it at $10 a pound.

In the generally-excellent cookbook _Chopstix_, by Hugh Carpenter, there's a recipe for a long-
simmered scallop soup called "Scallop Blossom Surprise". After that prolonged cooking, the scallops
disintegrate into lots of little threads, leading the author to comment, "The sea scallops are
simmered in chicken broth for 1 hour, which causes them to break apart into tender threads -- that's
the surprise!"

That doesn't sound appealing to me at all; I've never tried the recipe. But I'll post it if
anybody wants it.

Bob