Scallops Fresh From the Market…

While shopping for seafood in Cebu last week, not only did I find the clams for a dish of spaghetti a la vongole, here, but I came across a vendor with these spectacular looking scallops! At PHP200 a kilo, fresh and just shelled and cleaned, I couldn’t resist. Closer in size and quality to what they call “bay scallops” in the states, these were good, but not as sweet as good bay scallops can get. I dislike the really big scallops for the most part as they can get rather tough if cooked just a second or two too long…

I was busy with the vongole so couldn’t make much of a fuss when preparing the scallops. We simply put a cast iron hot plate on a charcoal fire, then added 1/4 cup of butter or so, lots and lots of chopped garlic and seared the scallops for a couple of minutes, seasoned with salt and pepper, and served this all, piping hot. Delicious! Don’t overcrowd your pan, you want some slightly caramelized bits on each side of the scallops. The larger ones were a touch undercooked, but the small ones were perfect. Almost better to be slightly undercooked than overcook these babies. You could also add a little olive oil, some dried crushed chilli peppers and toss these with pasta noodles with a squirt of fresh lemon juice and sprinkled with chopped parsley if you like. Sorry, didn’t get a photo of the final product, I was busy eating. :)

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22 Responses

  1. No need for picture on cooked scallops, I am sure they are delishisous:):)i can almost taste them.i love the little bay scallops too,they are tender and sweet in one bites.

  2. In Masbate, we can get them for as low as 80 pesos. That’s what I miss about the province.

  3. All this sea shell posts and red tide warnings is not helping my seafood craving! 200php for deshelled and cleaned scallops is a really good deal. Why not a seashell menu for Zubuchon?

  4. i love scallops,sauteed in garlic or sometimes fried..when i was in grade school i begged my mother to make this a staple in our table.didn’t know these were pretty pricey…

  5. what is the local term or tagalog for scallops? do you have any pictures unshelled? thanks

  6. Oh I so miss eating scallops in Bacolod! For me and my husband Imay’s has the best scallops. I’m drooling right now.

  7. Ranny Ace: Just type scallops on Google =)

    There was a Jamie Oliver show where his friend gathered scallops, which were made into an appetizer in the kitchen a few minutes later. I was fascinated by how scallops ran away (open-closed away?) from their predators. No wonder those adductor muscles grow so large!

  8. Sorry, didn’t get a photo of the final product, I was busy eating. :) … Good. I won’t be so envious then, hahaha!

  9. Since they are just the adductor muscle of the seashells, what do they do with the rest of the body? They must accumulate tons of them as by-product of the dried scallops industry in China. Chinese restaurants here usually cook just these expensive and delicious dried version more than the fresh ones but when they do, they cook the whole thing and serve them in their pretty shells. They look like mussel meat inside. And the shells, what do they do with the beautiful shells? In Spain they are linked to the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela to which the French also refer since they call them coquilles Saint Jaques. Btw, madeleines, those shell shaped cakes made famous by Proust’s dunking of them are also linked to the same pilgrimage.

  10. wow, large ones! how much were they, MM? they are plentiful around the visayas, where local restaurants usually serve them baked in the shell with plenty of margarine and garlic. but it’s rare to see “cleaned” scallops like these (meaning, just the adductor muscle). your recipe sounds delicious, although i probably would have thrown in some chopped chives (sorry, just jubilant over a surfeit of flowering chives in my backyard garden!). wish i could find scallops like these here.

  11. The rest of the mussel is called the coral, it is orange – red and quite delicate. Here in France the whole mussel is usually served, especially in the shell. When very fresh they are even eaten raw. Last week I ate a fantastic dish of mussels in a local restaurant ( quite ordinary, but we are on the sea here ) just quickly fried in butter, served with a beautiful slab of still trembling fois gras…it was amazing. And no, artisanal fois gras raised by traditional farmers does not traumatise the animals. Some shops here sell craft items made with the shells, just like in the Phils, mirror frames, lampshades, etc…The shells are associated with Santiago de Compostela because the boat on which St James (Santiago) landed – miraculously – was supposedly covered with them.

  12. millet the scallops that are baked and quite popular in bacolod is called the sun and
    moon scallop one side is white and one side is brown colored. the scallops that is in MM
    picture is a different kind of scallps called in masbate are as tikab-tikab. they tend to
    be chewey when over cooked

  13. We dined at Carrabbas Italian Grill and had the best tasting 3 giant scallops on a bed of delicious orzo. So tender, sooooo delicious, I ordered another serving ($18) to take home. Last week I was in a great big seafood market so I bought some big scallops (7 pcs in a pound for $12). Used my Le creuset and cooked them 4 at a time for 2.5 minutes each side. Turned out so tender and so delicious too. Love, love, love scallops!!

  14. thanks, bobby! First time to hear “sun and moon” scallops. They would be the “tipay” of Leyte, and closer to the capiz that windows are made of. they’re like two disks sandwiching a bit of meat in between, right? and you’re right, the baked ones in cebu have shells in the traditional compostela scallop shell (like the Shell gasoline logo). makes me realize that our seas must have been teeming with scallops then, that they had to find some use for the shells. Wonder how they cooked them. Am betting on kinilaw! (they do have scallop ceviche in the South Americas!)

  15. millet you should try scallops sashimi. this comes from a different type of scallops called kidney scallops. this type sometimes is called bubble gum scallops because they tend to be very chewey when cooked. you will have to pay and arm and a leg for these scallops in a
    japanese resto. the shape of the meat is kidney shaped hence the common name kidney
    scallops. japanese call them hotategai or tairagai.

  16. Hello. I saw in cold storage’s website that they sell half shell scallops (sunmoon/lampirong). I wonder if I can grill that on the half shell with cheese, butter and garlic. Thanks in advance.

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