Julia Child’s Wine Poached Sea Scallops Poached with Fines Herbes
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A quick-and-easy, elegant seafood course that’s sure to impress!
My Supper Club often chooses specific chefs for theme nights, and our most recent one was Julia Child. So each of us had to choose a recipe from Julia Child to prepare for a massive, six course French-inspired dinner party.
And it.was.awesome!
Growing up, I watched a lot of Julia Child‘s cooking shows. My favorite was Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home. It was captivating to watch her in the kitchen, though I didn’t end up cooking any of her recipes on my own until a few years ago.
So when this theme came around, I set off for the library to pick up a stack of her cookbooks.
I really enjoy cooking with scallops. They’re so elegant – they always make a meal feel special.
One of the recipes from Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom called for a poached preparation. Scallops without that nice golden crust?! It looked super simple, and it was unlike anything I had ever tried before. I knew I needed to try it out.
In the book, this recipe has a few options for variations. Both sounded awesome (Fines Herbes or Provençal – with Tomatoes), and I went for the first option, which seemed less labor intensive.
I used a mix of fresh herbs here, and it really livened up the flavor of this seafood dish. Her recipe said that the cream was “optional”, but I meannnnnn…
This dish was a big hit with our Supper Club! It was such an interesting, light preparation for scallops. You could really taste their inherent sweetness, and the vermouth added that French flair. They were cooked beautifully, and the texture was beyond silky smooth.
I could see this being beautiful as an appetizer, too, served as individual scallops on those large, flat-bottomed spoons. This is making me want to have another French-inspired dinner party!
I rewrote the recipe and directions a bit, because while I love the conversational tone of Julia’s recipe writing, it isn’t how my brain works in the kitchen. I hope you give this scallop dish a try – it really is tasty!
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Julia Child’s Wine Poached Sea Scallops Poached with Fines Herbes
- Yield: 6 Servings 1x
Description
A quick-and-easy, elegant seafood course that’s sure to impress!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 teaspoons minced shallots
- 1/3 cup dry white French vermouth
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 1 1/2 pounds whole scallops
- 1 tablespoon each fresh minced parsley, dill, tarragon, and chives (or any combination thereof)
- 2–3 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
- To a large saucepan, add shallots, vermouth, water, salt, and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer for 3 minutes. Add the scallops and let simmer 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, just until lightly springy to the touch.
- Remove from heat and let cool in the liquid at least 10 minutes, to pick up its flavor. Remove scallops, discard bay leaf, and rapidly boil down until almost syrupy.
- Stir in minced herbs, then return scallops to the liquid. Briefly reheat scallops, folding in heavy cream at the end.
- Note: Simmering times for quartered sea scallops and bay scallops, 15 to 30 seconds; for calicos, bring just to the simmer.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom by Julia Child
Big Flavors Rating: 5 Stars
Ashley
Ashley Covelli is a food photographer, recipe developer, and culinary instructor based in Ossining, New York. She loves helping people become enthusiastic and adventurous in the kitchen so that they can build skills and confidence to cook for themselves and their loved ones. She can almost always be found with at least 3 different beverages within arm's reach.
