Pan Seared Scallops With Asparagus Risotto

Scallops in my opinion, are just about the fanciest and most delicious things you can make at home. Because they are so delicate, they do take quite a bit of technique to nail.

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Risotto
1.2 liter low sodium veggie broth
200g risotto rice
1 minced shallot
12 or more asparagus stalks (oblique cuts)
Splash white wine
5g grated pecorino romano
1 knob of butter
Chopped parsley
Salt
Pepper

Asparagus Salad
Reserved asparagus tops
Chives
Toasted pistachios
lemon juice
olive oil
salt

Scallops
8 diver or dry pack scallops
Salt
Cooking oil
Butter

00:00 – Scallops are FANCY
00:39 – Equipment Needed
00:54 – The Trick To Perfect Scallops
01:18 – Scallop Prep
01:34 – Risotto Prep
03:19 – Creating The Creamiest Risotto
05:50 – Pan Searing Scallops
07:49 – Plating Tips

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scallops are one of the fanciest and
most delicious things you can cook at
home but because of their delicate
nature there’s a little bit of technique
required to really get them right we’re
going to have them sitting on a creamy
risotto with an asparagus salad to help
brighten everything up watch this video
If you’re looking for a restaurant
quality scallop dish at home welcome
back to my ongoing Series where I teach
recipes starting from the easiest all
the way up to multi-step intensive
showstoppers if you’ve been here from
the beginning congratulations we have
come to the end of the road we started
with humble Crepes and Grill cheese and
are now working our way up to restaurant
quality scallops over creamy risotto
genuinely I am so proud of you and I
think you can do this equipment wise
we’re going to need a cutting board a
chef’s knife a vegetable peeler a
microplane a spatula a ladle two pots a
sauté pan a scale prep bowls as always
and something to flip your scallops with
be it a Tong or a spatula so we’ve not
yet covered the process of getting a
hard sear on a delicate protein like
scallops and that’s the main hurdle for
a dish like this the challenge is to not
overcook the interior while still
creating something with a textural
contrast of a well-formed crust we have
to go very hot and fast with these so
we’ll save the scallop cooking for last
they are only going to need 4 minutes in
total in the pan which means we’ll have
everything else ready to go when we
start cooking them let’s go ahead and
remove the foot which is that little
muscle that sits on the edge of each one
we can toss those and then wash the
scallops with gently running cool water
they can potentially absorb some water
so don’t leave them in too long and then
dry each one off and set them on a plate
in the fridge these are all set and
ready to go for when we need them later
for a stunning creamy risoto we need
some carnaroli rice which creates a more
distinct texture for the finished dish
AR Boro is great but it creates a
risotto that in my opinion kind of
tastes like rice pudding it’s like kind
of soft in one note if you do use arboro
for this just know that your cook time
is going to be a little bit shorter but
that’s okay cuz we’re going to have to
taste it for dness anyways for prep we
need to break down a shallot into a fine
mince use that claw grip that we’ve been
working on and create the grid into the
side of the shallot just like you would
an onion make your grid really tight
that way you end up with a fine dice I
wanted this risotto to be a sort of
spring celebration asparagus is in
season and it goes really well with
scallops so let’s use those here today
we’re going to cut our stems using a
sort of roll oblique cut here I haven’t
taught that yet so here’s how to do it
first remove the little bit of a Woody
end some people bend these until it
naturally breaks I honestly just cut
them off that way I can do them in
bigger batches cut pieces at an angle
larger than a dice and then roll the
stock over slightly make another angled
cut and continue doing so until you have
about 3 in of the asparagus head left
we’ll use those later as the salad
continue working through your pieces and
set your stock Cuts in one pile and the
heads in another one take out our peeler
or you could use a mandal in here if you
had one and we’re going to use it to
create a fine ribbon from the asparagus
tops you can sort of just grab the end
and hold it and then run your peeler
across the top once you get to the
bottom of it just slice off that end
that you were holding and then you’ll
have pieces of asparagus that work raw
in the salad at the end grab a handful
of of toasted pistachios and run your
knife through those as well we just want
these pieces a little bit smaller so
they can incorporate into the salad
later we can also measure out our rice
and stock here 200 g of the carnaroli
rice works with a little over a liter of
stock or broth I’m going to be using a
low sodium veggie stock but you can use
any light stock that you enjoy and
that’s it let’s get to cooking at the
stove we’re going to need a little bit
of a two burner setup here reason being
is that we want to keep our stock close
to simmering so that we can Ladle the
hot stock into the rice as we go get
your stock in one pan and get that over
like medium low and then get your other
pan over medium add a touch of olive oil
along with your minced shallot to begin
sweating you don’t need any color on
this we just want it to not be raw add a
pinch of salt and then add your rice to
the hot oil SL shot mix and then cook it
to coat all of the grains in the fat
once it starts smelling a little bit
toasty you can uncork a bottle of white
wine doesn’t have to be anything crazy
expensive and then pour in a small glug
probably like 20 to 30 MS or so stir
this in until it’s completely absorbed
and then we can begin the main stage of
risoto C
which is slowly adding stock and
stirring to bring out as much of the
Rice’s natural starch as we can this
gives the risotto its beautifully creamy
mouth feel to get through this much
stock it’s going to take roughly 20
minutes or so so be prepared to strap in
for a little bit of mixing each time you
L all you’re going to mix and cook it
until the stock has been almost
completely absorbed you don’t have to go
crazy here on the mixing but it does
help create the ultimate creamy texture
at around the 20 minute Mark you’re
going to want to taste your rice
granules just to see how they’re coming
along if you use ororo rice taste it
about 15 minutes right here they should
be tender but not completely soft to be
perfectly undercooked M need it about 2
more minutes the risotto is going to be
both under seasoned and undercooked here
which is what we want because we’re
still going to have to add some roasted
asparagus some cheese some butter later
we’re going to cover this and let this
rest on the stove in a different spot
while we work on the asparagus in the
scallops set your sauté pan over medium
high heat and add a touch of olive oil
along with a small knob of butter once
the butter is hot and foamy add your
your asparagus pieces and season them
with salt and pepper cook these in the
hot fat until just barely fork tender
and they’ve taken on a little bit of
color taste one if you’re unsure just to
make sure that they have the right
texture but in a hot pan like this they
don’t need long remove them from the pan
and add them to the risotto pot to the
risotto we’re going to now grade in 5 G
of peino Romano cheese which is nice and
tangy and salty a knob of butter and
then a bunch of finely minced parsley if
you don’t cook with wine a little bit of
white wine vinegar here goes a long way
just to bring out that little bit of
like acidic sweetness that the wine
brings just a few drops to help really
brighten it the risotto is going to need
a little bit of water or if you’ve still
got some stock left to get to the right
texture so adjust it accordingly lastly
taste this for seasoning and adjust the
salt content if your stock is overly
salty or if you’ve added too much cheese
you’re not going to want to like
overseason this keep this warm and
covered while we finish the rest of the
dish wash out that pan and get it back
on the stove to preheat over medium high
for a couple minutes the pan needs to be
really hot but it also needs to be
evenly hot so move it around in case
your stove has some cool spots like mine
does grab your scallops from the fridge
and dry them again with a paper towel
then season both sides with a little bit
of salt keep in mind that scallops are
that kind of salty sweet Briny ocean
flavor so you don’t want to like season
this like you would a steak season this
a little bit more gently than that use a
bead of water to judge the temperature
if it beads and rolls around freely like
this the pan is hot enough be sure your
fan is on the vents are open as this is
the hottest we’ve cooked anything yet
add oil to coat the bottom of the pan
canola vegetable or avocado here is good
and then gently place your scallops into
that hot oil being very careful not to
Splash it on yourself I would say use
tongs here set a 2-minute timer and
don’t touch the scallops if you’ve
correctly heated your pan they’re not
going to stick when we go to flip them
over so don’t worry at the 2-minute
timer flip the scallops and add in a few
tablespoons of butter and restart the
2-minute timer here’s a quick note I
would normally cook these hotter and
darker however every time I do that I
set off my smoke alarm and my wife was
on a call so I tried to avoid setting
off my smoke alarm but check it
yep I still did it butter is going to
cool down the pan and give us a
beautiful brown butter to spoon over the
tops of the scallops for scallops this
large 4 minutes is just about perfect
but keep in mind that smaller ones are
going to cook quicker these scallops I
was cooking are about 10 to 12 sized
which means that between 10 and 12 of
these scallops makes up a pound of
scallops if you’re up into like the 15s
and 20s they’re going to be a little bit
smaller and a little bit quicker cooking
so adjust your time accordingly remove
them from the pan and pour the brown
butter over over them while they rest
the last thing we really need to do is
dress our salad so toss the shredded
asperas into a bowl along with some
finely chopped chives for that little
bit of oniony brightness and those
pistachios that we chopped earlier
squeeze in a little bit of lemon juice
along with a touch of olive oil to
create a mixes shift dressing season
this with salt and pepper and the whole
thing is ready for plating I like a
shallow bowl or a plate for this so we
can create a bed of the risoto and then
place the scallops around the plate and
pile your salad in the center if you
want a second plating that I actually
think looks a little bit better you
could put the salad down on top of the
risotto and then place your scallops on
top of that take a second to give
yourself a nice little pat on the back
because if you’re coming from making
grilled cheese this is probably one of
the fanciest things you’ve ever cooked
and you nailed
it the scallops are going to be
perfectly tender with that like ocean
brininess you’ve got that asparagus
that’s a little bit woodsy and springy
to balance everything out the risoto is
nice and creamy to give it more body I
really can’t believe how good this one
is thank you so so much for watching and
thanks for keeping up with this series
my goal with it was to really give you
the keys to step into the kitchen and
cook confidently going from something
like a crepe which almost requires no
cooking whatsoever to making pan seared
scallops is a pretty big jump in just 3
months and so I really am truly proud of
you go ahead and subscribe if you want
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