What's old is certainly new again.  Everyone I know has decided to try their hand at canning, freezing, curing, and other ways to preserve the season's bounty and with this renewed interest in "Putting Up" there have been a slew of new cookbooks devoted to the subject. 

"Well Preserved" by New York writer Eugenia Bone is the creme de la creme of those such books.  There are many things that I love about this book, number one it focuses on putting up small batches of seasonal foods. I don't know about you, but I don't buy flats and flats of fresh produce, usually its just a few quarts of this or a small bushel of that.

I also love that Eugenia covers more than just making jams and jellies.  She teaches you the basics on pickling, pressure canning, freezing, preserving in oil, curing, and smoking.  Her recipes have the feeling of the more familiar but made even better. Her "Strawberry Balsamic Jam" and the "Pear, Port, and Thyme Conserve" are a far cry from my grandmother's "Strawberry Jam" and "Pear Butter". 

I have nearly half of the recipes in Well-Preserved dog eared in hopes that I will try them all at some point, but the one that really jumped out at me was the Smoked Scallops (see recipes below).  I live a mere ten minute drive from the Atlantic Ocean and as luck would have it my brother-in-law is a commercial scallop fisherman which means a good 8 months out of the calender year I have more Sea Scallops than I know what to do with. Always looking for new ways to cook them, and after recently spending some time learning how to smoke meat on the grill, I knew I had to give the "Smoked Scallops" a try.  Eugenia recommends using a stovetop smoker, but if you have a charcoal grill, preferably a Weber Kettle (I could sing the praises of my Kettle all day long) it's very easy to convert it to a smoker and make these scallops outside. 

The smoky, sweet, salty flavor of the scallops was so good I could have eaten them all, but I knew I had to try them out in one of Eugenia's recipies.  "Scrambled eggs with Smoked Salmon" is a classic combination and one of my favorite dishes so why not "Eggs with Smoked Scallops".  I have one word for you...Perfection.

If you are looking for truly unique ways to preserve some of the season's best, then look no further than "Well Preserved". 

Smoked Scallops

From Well-Preserved by Eugenia Bone. Clarkson Potter, 2009.

The versatility of smoked scallops cannot be underestimated. For a quick appetizer, I serve a few on top of a puddle of green sauce made by blending together a handful of leafy herbs, a tablespoon of pine nuts, and a few garlic cloves in a food processor. Smoked scallops are fabulous dropped into a bean soup, excellent tossed with marinated mushrooms, and great in a potato salad with scallions and garlic mayonnaise. The scallops will hold for 10 days in the fridge-but you'll be lucky to have them around that long once you taste them.

Smoked scallops are preserved by curing with salt, which inhibits the growth of bacteria, and by the application of heat from the smoke, which kills bacteria, after which they must be refrigerated to ensure what bacteria are left don't grow. I use a Camerons stovetop smoker and find it works equally well on gas and ceramic stovetops. A variety of wood chips should come with your smoker, and you can buy additional chips through the manufacturer. (See page 40 for information on curing and smoking.)

Makes about 1 1/2 pounds

• 1 cup pickling salt
• 3 pounds medium dry-pack scallops  (about 20 per pound), abductor muscle removed (see Note below)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons alder chips (or other wood chips of your choosing, as long as they are processed by the manufacturer of your smoker)

Combine the salt and 7 cups cold water and mix to dissolve the salt. (You can use kosher salt, too, but you will find it doesn't dissolve as well.) Drop in the scallops and let them rest in the refrigerator for an hour. This step is called brining, and it is important because to store smoked fish in the refrigerator safely, you need to introduce salt into the flesh. Salt is the primary preservative of smoked fish.

Drain and rinse the scallops and return them to the bowl with clean cold water. Allow the scallops to soak for about 30 minutes. This is called clearing, and it helps the salt to distribute evenly throughout the scallop (so it's not too salty on the outside). Drain, rinse, and pat dry the scallops. Smoke does not deposit well on wet flesh.

Place the wood chips in the bottom of the smoker and the tray and grill on top. Place the scallops on the grill. Leave the smoker open a crack and place it over medium heat. As soon as you see wisps of smoke escaping, close the smoker. Smoke the scallops for 35 minutes. Some smoke will find a way out of the smoker during the first 5 minutes or so. It's okay. It will usually stop. If it doesn't, wrap the lid with a damp dish towel. Sometimes I put a kettle of water on top if the lid is warping (this happens a lot with my stovetop smoker). It is important that the smoke stay in the smoker; otherwise the scallops will not get hot enough to cook.

After 35 minutes, turn off the heat and allow the smoker to come to room temperature. Remove the scallops. (I highly recommend you eat a few while they are still warm. They're luscious.) Let the scallops come down to room temperature, then dry them off and place in a plastic container lined with a paper towel. Don't place warm scallops in a plastic bag or container: the moisture on the scallops will condense and speed up the growth of mold.

NOTE: The scallop has a small tough muscle attached to its body called the abductor. It is easy to spot because it is usually a little darker than the rest of the scallop. It pulls off easily. Dry-pack scallops are scallops that have not been treated with chemicals to make them retain water.

Eggs with Smoked Scallops

From Well-Preserved by Eugenia Bone. Clarkson Potter, 2009.

Pile these eggs on toasted Italian bread that's been rubbed with oil and sprinkled with salt.

• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced (about 2 tablespoons), or 1/4 cup minced shallot
• 12 large organic eggs
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 pound Smoked Scallops (about 20)
• 1/4 cup minced fresh tarragon

Serves 4

Heat 4 tablespoons of the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Do not brown. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Do not brown the garlic. Crack in the eggs. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Allow them to cook until the whites become opaque, about 45 seconds, then scramble them. When they are still very soft, add the scallops and half the tarragon. Fold in the scallops and finish cooking the eggs. I like them soft, about 2 minutes.

To serve family style, dump the eggs onto a platter and garnish with the remaining tarragon and bits of the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, with toast on the side. To serve individually, place a piece of toast on the plate, put the eggs on top, and then garnish with tarragon and 1/2 tablespoon of butter per serving. You can also dribble with extra virgin olive oil or white truffle oil.
 

 About Well-Preserved

Well-Preserved is a collection of 30 small batch preserving recipes and 90 recipes in which to use the preserved goods. In this book, Eugenia Bone, a New Yorker whose Italian father was forever canning everything from olives to tuna, describes the art of preserving in an accessible way. Though she covers traditional water bath and pressure canning in detail, she also shares simpler methods that allow you to preserve foods using low-tech options like oil-preserving, curing, and freezing. Bone clearly explains each technique so that you can rest assured your food is stable and safe.

Available at Amazon.com

PermaLink