Isle of Skye Hand Dived Scallop Baked In The Shell, Topped With Puff Pastry And Flavoured with Kombu Seaweed How to shuck a scallop Now, there are plenty of different ways to do this. Below is a step-by-step guide to doing it my way, or more correctly, the way my family does it. You might find that your uncle's neighbour's son does it differently, that's fine. There is no 'correct' way, but you want to make sure you end up with a nice neat scallop and you're not wasting any of the precious meat by leaving it on the shell. We find this way works well, but feel free to modify if another way suits you better. You will need a blunt pairing knife, or a bread and butter knife and some sea water to rinse them (please, please ever don't rinse fresh seafood in fresh water unless you absolutely have to, it really does destroy the flavour). First you will need to lie your scallops out belly-down so they open up. We leave them to open while we are rinsing our dive gear - by the time we are done they are good to go.
Hold the scallop in your hand, belly-down. You need to be pretty speedy on the first step, if you're too slow they will close up and you will have to set them aside and wait for them to open again.
Quickly slice the knife in under the belly, releasing the muscle from the shell. You want to make sure you get right under it so you don't leave any of the muscle on the shell.
Once the muscle is released, the whole thing will relax and you will be able to open the scallop right up.
This will leave you with the scallop on the flat side of the shell.
Cut the black belly of the scallop off. You should now be able to pull the scallop away cleanly from the shell, leaving behind the
'gunk' that you don't want. All done! Pop your scallop into a bowl of sea water while you are shucking the rest and give them a gentle swirl - this will make sure they are nice and clean as well as rinsing out and drying the shell s. Drain on a paper towel and set aside in the fridge. Puff Pastry Dough SERVES 10 Ingredients:- 250g plain flour 250g unsalted butter 125g iced water 1 teaspoon salt Method:- 1. Add flour & softened butter to mixing bowl and mix on slow until dough starts to bind, add iced water and turn up speed until mixed together 2. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface & roll the dough away from you into a rectangle, fold in the ends to make x 3 layers, rotate the pastry 90 and roll it out again into a rectangle and fold into 3 3. Repeat step 3 two times more, rest for 1-2 hours 4. Take dough out of the fridge and roll into a sheet with a thickness of ½ centimetre, cut into rounds with tarte tatin mould, (8/10 cm diameter) cover, refrigerate
Kombu Seaweed butter Ingredients:- 250g Unsalted butter 1 Tablespoon dried kombu seaweed Zest and juice of two lemon 5 cloves of garlic (Peeled and crushed) 1 fresh bay leaf (Torn) 1 Tea spoon of celery salt Method:- 1. Add all ingredients to a pot and warm slowly at a low heat for one hour, set aside. 2. Let the butter infuse for another four hours the return to the stove. 3. Melt the butter down again on a low heat until liquid then pass through a sieve and place the butter in the fridge to harden overnight. 4. Bring the butter out of the fridge and heat to room temperature, then place in a mixer and beat until the butter is creamed, light in colour and soft to touch. 5. Roll the butter in a sausage shape and wrap in clingfilm. 6. The butter is now ready to use. Putting The Dish Together:- 1. Take your fresh scallop out of the fridge, slice in to three and place in scallop shell. 2. Top this with three slices of your flavoured butter. 3. Brush the sides of the scallop shell with fresh egg yolk then place the puff pastry disk on top. 4. Gently work your fingers round the shell, pressing down as you go round to seal all the way round. 5. Egg-wash the top of the puff pastry and return to the fridge to rest for ten to fifteen minutes. 6. Mean while set your fan oven to 220C 7. Place the sealed Scallop shell on to a cold baking tray and bake in the oven for 8 10 minutes or until golden, serve immediately or your scallop will over cook.