Away with the greasy restaurant scallops! Prepare yourself and your guests a spectacular course using only a few simple ingredients. Our recipe showcases lusciously soft but never lardy scallops – sweet and juicy from inside coated in fresh peppery heaven.
Store-bought lemon pepper seasonings share one thing in common: whether they come from a fancy organic manufacturer or with a store-branded label, they most likely offer an artificial aftertaste due to unavoidable preserving agents. Keeping the goal of showing off your cooking skills in mind, a homecooked lemon pepper sauce infused with the sweet juices of scallops is your best bet.
Lemon Pepper Scallops
Equipment
- Fine mesh strainer
- Medium - size mixing bowl
- Frying pan
- Cooking tongs
Ingredients
- 1 lemon, cut into halves
- 6 thyme sprigs
- 1½ tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp chilled unsalted butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp ground black pepper
- 12 oz wild-caught sea scallops
Instructions
- Use a mesh strainer to drain scallops. Sprinkle them with pepper and a little bit of salt.
- Halve the lemon. Add one half of lemon vesicle side down and two tablespoons of unsalted butter to the frying pan to melt. This way the butter gains some of the lemon's fragrant notes.
- After the butter melted, add the olive oil. Grab the top of the lemon with your fingers and use the fruit to mix olive oil and butter. When small bubbles appear as shown in the photo, the lemon oil and butter mixture is ready for the scallops.
- Carefully add scallops one by one to the pan.
- This is the moment when the lemon really steps into the game. With tongs, squeeze out the lemon juice onto scallops. Return the fruit to the pan and add thyme sprigs to the sauce. Don't forget to pour lemon pepper sauce over scallops multiple times during cooking, this makes a world of difference!
- Remember, saute the scallops for three to four minutes from the bottom, then turn them to saute the other side. The bottom of the scallops should be browned when flipped.
