Poached Scallops with Caviar Sauce

Poached Scallops with Caviar Sauce
Poached Scallops with Caviar Sauce
Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Eric Ripert and Michael Ruhlman's book the A Return To Cooking. To read more about Ripert, click here. This is a hugely luxurious dish, with the sweet flesh of the scallops enhanced by a sauce flavored and thickened with caviar. The dish is rich and creamy, sweet and salty. And it's very easy to make. The sauce base is clam juice, cream, and butter. The scallops are poached for just a minute or two, and caviar is added to the sauce just before serving. That is the only tricky and critical part of this dish: You must be careful to heat the sauce gently once the caviar has been added, bringing it just up to heat without letting it boil. It is, after all, an egg-thickened sauce, and you must be careful of overcooking eggs in this sauce or the caviar will turn hard and white. Treat it as the delicate product it is. Or, as Eric would put it, "Don't whisk it like an idiot. You must be extremely gentle."
  • Preparing Time: -
  • Total Time: -
  • Served Person: Makes 6 servings
French Fish Shellfish Poach Quick & Easy Scallop
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter
  • 1 cup clam juice
  • fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
  • 3 cups court-bouillon
  • 18 large sea scallops or 6 jumbo live scallops in the shell
  • 3 ounces osetra caviar
  • 1/2 lemon, seeds removed
  • 2 tablespoons thinly sliced chives
  • 6 jumbo scallop shells (reserved from the live scallops or purchased at a gourmet shop) (optional)
  • rock salt (if using scallop shells)
  • Carbohydrate 5 g(2%)
  • Cholesterol 144 mg(48%)
  • Fat 12 g(19%)
  • Fiber 0 g(1%)
  • Protein 21 g(42%)
  • Saturated Fat 7 g(33%)
  • Sodium 942 mg(39%)
  • Calories 217

Preparation Bring the clam juice and heavy cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. Add the butter and whisk to incorporate. Set aside. Bring the court-bouillion to a simmer in a pan large enough to accommodate the scallops. Season the scallops on both sides with salt and pepper. Add the scallops to the simmering court-bouillon and poach gently until they are cooked just to rare, about 1 1/2 minutes for large scallops, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes for jumbo scallops. To serve, place a bed of rock salt on each plate and rest a scallop shell on it (if you do not have scallop shells, serve the scallops in shallow bowls). Place 3 large scallops or 1 jumbo in each shell. Meanwhile, gently reheat the sauce. Remove from the heat, add the caviar, and stir until the caviar is just heated through, about 45 seconds. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into the sauce, add the chives, and season with pepper. Spoon the sauce over the scallops, making sure the caviar is evenly distributed. Serve immediately. Reprinted with permission from A Return to Cooking by Eric Ripert and Michael Ruhlman, © 2002 Artisan, A Division of Workman Publishing Company, Inc.