After twelve straight hours of packaging and shipping, I was ready for a delicious sit-down meal. I dropped all my packages off at the post office and then headed to Earthfare to pick up groceries for dinner. While I was in Maine, I ate at a fabulous restaurant called Frills in Ogunquit, Maine. I mentioned trying their garlic parmesan-crusted scallops and falling in love with them. I have been itching to try making my own version of them. I tried to guess all the ingredients while eating their scallops, so it would be easier to recreate. I pulled flavors out like soy sauce, fresh garlic, parsley, pepper, brown sugar, and butter.
I figured making these would be a great appetizer while the rest of the meal is cooked. Scallops take about four minutes to cook, so I served them before the potatoes, salmon, and pea pods. They are so rich and decadent that one or two is enough. I want to make these again and put them over a spinach salad.
Scallops are pretty pricey at the grocery store. Instead of buying them by the pound, I asked for 6-7 of just jumbo scallops. All the other ingredients are for the main course, which I’ll blog about after!
Ingredients:
*6-7 jumbo scallops
*5 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
*handful of parsley
*1 tablespoon Cabernet (optional)
*2-3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
*1 tablespoon light brown sugar
*sprinkle of pepper
*fresh shredded parmesan cheese
*1/4 cup olive oil (instead of butter)
Heat a sautéing pan on medium-high and add olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add garlic and let it sauté for about three minutes. Make sure the oil isn’t too hot, or it’ll burn the garlic. Add brown sugar, parsley, and soy sauce.
Be careful when you add soy sauce. It’ll start to pop all over because of the oil. Remove it from the heat if it pops out of control.
Give the soy sauce a good stir with the oil, and then get ready to add the scallops.
Rinse all the scallops and then coat them in the parmesan cheese.
Place the scallops in the pan with the sauce.
Bake each side for about 2 minutes. Scallops cook REALLY fast. If you’re going to eat them with a meal, prepare them last.
Each side should be golden brown. The parmesan cheese will make the scallops crispy and the brown sugar will caramelize them. Remove them from the pan and serve!
Instead of wasting the sauce in the pan, I added a cup of pea pods to it and sautéed them for five minutes on high!
They turned out heavenly.
I think the restaurant had added some kind of bread crumbs, but these were just as good. Everyone LOVED them! They said they belonged to a five-star restaurant. I’m sure they were just being nice, but it made me proud to hear that.
Scallops are one of my favorite seafood. I always describe it as the offspring of crab and shrimp. You don’t get a strong fishy taste with scallops and the texture is just like crabmeat. It’s so good for you too, and you can flavor it simple or crazy like I did tonight. I will admit, I was totally against them before I tried them. They kinda looked funny and didn’t sound that great. I wasted too many years not eating those babies!
Not only were the scallops good, but the sauce was phenomenal. They wanted something to wipe the plate clean, so I toasted some ciabatta bread.
I promise you will not regret trying this recipe. Even if you don’t like scallops, try this one! Your mind may be changed forever! Pour yourself a glass of Cabernet and enjoy!
Hayli says
Those look AMAZING!! I will be making very soon!
Taralynn McNitt says
Thank you!!
Alyssa says
These look AMAZING! You really have a talent to be able to taste all of the ingredients and whip up something similar! Thanks for sharing with us, I’ll definitely be making these 🙂
Desire says
I am making these ASAP!
Melanie says
I have never tried scallops before, but now I want to! Yum!!
Catherine says
12 hours of packaging??? Wow, you must sell a lot. Does anyone help you? How will you cope when you are studying again? What will you be studying?
Jill says
I love scallops but have never made them at home. These look great!
Jenn says
Did you really measure out and use 1/4c of olive oil? I know you are trying to replace the butter but that just sounds like a lot to me. Would love to try these and want to make them right. Thanks girl!
Taralynn McNitt says
I did! There is a lot of olive oil left over in the pan, but I needed enough so the scallops didn’t burn.
Jenn says
Cool, thanks!
quinn says
Thank you for this recipe. I found it while searching tastespotting for scallops. Your photos are what caught me and my husband couldn’t have been more happy with this recipe.
Coco says
Thank you for this recipe. I love scallops but didn’t know how to cook them! Your recipe was easy for me to follow and my whole family enjoyed these.
Jess says
BEST SCALLOPS RECIPE OUT THERE
Amy says
How can I get a printable version of the recipe and can this be scaled up for a dinner portion size?
Joanne says
This recipe was FANTASTIC! Will definitely be on our rotation! Could not find where the Cabernet came in so before I put the scallops in the pan is when I added the wine! The flavors were just so delicious.
Georgia says
I like this very much
Jody says
What temperature do you bake them at in the oven? Thank you.
WALTER says
Not baked they are cooked in a frying pan