Combining seafood with mushrooms can be magic. We prepared Cod with Horn of Plenty and Beech Mushrooms with Haddock. Both are delicious combinations.
We went shopping on the market, looking for fresh or dried morels. After having bought them, we saw great looking scallops. Why not combine these two complimentary products?
At home we searched for Coquilles Saint Jacques aux Morilles, assuming we would find lots of suggestions in French. Which we did. It turns out to be a ‘recipe from (grand-) mother’, although we don’t know why because it’s such a refined dish. The scallops are delicate; the sauce rich and the morels have a unique taste. Adding finely chopped morels to the sauce helps bringing the two main ingredients together.
Wine Pairing
We decided to enjoy a glass of lightly oaked chardonnay with our Scallops with Morels, produced by Doudet-Naudin. The wine is fresh with some acidity. Its aromas are floral with some nuttiness. The freshness is nice with the sauce, and the nuttiness is great with the aroma of the fried morels. In general, we suggest a nicely balanced, pleasant white wine with some oak, fruitiness and freshness.
What You Need
- 10 grams of dried Morels (or 50 grams of fresh Morels)
- 6 Scallops
- 1 small Shallot
- Parsley
- Cream
- Stock (vegetable or chicken)
- Mustard
- Black Pepper
- Butter
- Olive oil
What You Do
- If using dried morels, then soak the morels in warm water, wait for 30 minutes, remove morels from water, check for dirt and pass the morel-water through a fine sieve if necessary
- If using fresh morels: check for dirt
- Clean the scallops
- Warm 2 skillets
- Finely chop shallot
- Remove the white stem of the morels
- Halve 2/3 of the morels lengthwise
- Finely chop 1/3 of the morels
- Chop the parsley
- Gently fry the sliced morels in butter in one skillet, for a few minutes or until a touch golden
- Wrap the fried morels in aluminium foil and transfer morels to the oven on 50 °C or 120 °F
- Glaze shallot in the same skillet
- After a few minutes add chopped morels
- After 5 minutes add some chicken stock, some morel-water, cream and black pepper
- Add ½ teaspoon of mustard. The mustard will add flavour and help thicken the sauce
- Reduce and taste
- Have morel-water and/or stock on stand-by in case you need to be thinning the sauce
- Add some chopped parsley
- Taste the sauce and adjust
- Quickly fry the scallops in olive oil until opaque
- Time to assemble: the sauce, the scallops and the halved morels on top. Sprinkle with parsley
Cook and Drink 