Coquille St. Jaques

[fifi]

I am fixing a Sunday Brunch for a dear friend's birthday on Sunday (duh).

She is an absolute freak about Coquille St. Jaques. My sister and I have looked at a few recipes and none of them seem just right. We could take what we think is good from each and come up with our own (a successful venture with other dishes) but I thought I would ask this august body of experts for their thoughts.

Other items on the menu are likely to be a fruit cup, roasted asparagus (she loves that, too), french bread, champagne... what else? We probably won't do dessert because none of us are dessert eaters. We will probably go out shopping in Kemah and get a snowcone for a sweet later.

Your eGullet brilliance, please!

[snowangel]

I remember a friend talking about the "Spanish" style -- with ham, onions and breadcrumbs, sans white sauce/cream stuff.

I assume you have consulted Julia and Jacques? I would trust them the most, but then again, this is a dish I rarely make.

[KateW]

We just make Coquille St. Jacques a couple days ago in Classical French class. I don't know if the recipe is better or worse than most because I'd never had it before but if you want it I'll give it to you.

[fifi]

My Julia & Jaques book doesn't have it.

KateW... Recipe PLEASE.

[JAZ]

Do you have Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking? There's a recipe in there for Coquilles St. Jaques a la Parisienne that I've used a couple of times -- I thought it was great, although I've made a couple of changes from the original.

Start out by slicing and sauteeing about a half a pound of mushrooms. Set aside.

Simmer 1 cup white wine and 1 cup water with a little salt and pepper, a bay leaf and a couple tablespoons of minced shallots. Poach your scallops (recipe calls for a pound) for a couple of minutes -- you want them just short of done. Strain out and set aside.

For the sauce:

Reduce the scallop cooking liquid down to one cup.

Cook 3 Tbsp. butter and 4 Tbsp. flour together for a couple of minutes -- they should be foaming but not browned. Blend in the cooking liquid and 3/4 cup milk and whisk until smooth. Bring to a boil.

Blend 2 egg yolks with 1/2 cup heavy cream. Slowly beat in a little of the hot sauce into the egg and cream mixture to temper it. Then combine the two mixtures and heat back to the boil. Season to taste (I add a couple of drops of Tabasco) and thin with more cream if too thick. Strain it if you want a perfectly smooth sauce.

Julia calls for slicing the scallops into 1/8 inch slices and assembling in individual shells, which I don't have. I slice them in two and assemble in individual gratinee dishes (or leave them whole and assemble in one big shallow dish).

To assemble, mix the sauce with the mushrooms and scallops. Spoon into a buttered gratin dish (or individual ones), sprinkle with grated gruyere or parmesan cheese (and drizzle on a little melted butter if you like). Run them under the broiler until cheese is lightly browned.

Hope this helps.

[fifi]

JAZ... that is looking really good. It would be really fun to be able to tell her that it is from St. Julia.

I don't have the book (Why is that? I have every other book in the world??? Have to correct that.) but I think I can get it with your description.

When I called my friend to invite her last night, she asked if I was going to do something on my smoker since she hasn't had anything off of it since I got it. Ooops. Well... The scallops can be the surprise. But I will smoke a pork butt ahead and we can use it for munchies and one of her birthday presents will be a nice package of pulled pork to take home. Now THAT is an eclectic menu.

[MichaelB]

OK, if not one else is going to step forward, I'll be the smartass in the crowd.

You need to tell us how you want your scallops prepared -- or at least the general style of preparation.

Le Repertoire de La Cuisine lists the following 6 preparations for Coquilles Saint-Jacques (scallops in English):

Curry

Gratin

Mornay

Nantaise

Ostendaise

Parisienne

[fifi]

Damn... Who knew? I thought that Coquille St. Jacques was a defined dish with variations, sort of like Oysters Rockefeller.

Lets talk in terms of gratin since I just got these lovely LeCreuset individual gratin pans.

[snowangel]

Gratin would be the "plainer" version:

Dry 1 lb. of scallops. Sprinkle with drops of lemon juice, salt and pepper. The moment before sauteeing, dredge in flour, shaking off excess.

Film frying pan with a very thin layer of oil. When almost smoking, add the scallops. Toss until lightly browned. Add 2 T minced shallots and 1 clove mashed garlic, toss with butter and parsley and serve.

OR

Barely brown the scallops, toss with shallots and garlic and add 1/2 c. dry white wine or vermouth. Cover and simmer for a minute, uncover and boil for a moment until liquid has thickened slightly. Spoon scallops and sauce into buttered shells or dishes, sprinkle each with a t. of grated swiss and a few drops of melted butter. Reheat and brown under broiler just before serving.

[MichaelB]

In the classic preparations, all but the Curry are "gratins." I wasn't willing to type all this in the earlier post but I will now.

Gratin. Blanch, slice, braise in white wine and mushrooms cooking liquor, place in the shells and coat with gratin sauce, sprinkle with bread crumbs and set in oven to gratin.

Mornay. Same as above with Mornay sauce, glaze

Nantaise. Same as above, surround the scallops with bearded and poached oysters and mussels, coat with glazing white wine sauce, glaze.

Ostendaise. Same treatment, garnish with shrimps, dice of mushrooms, oysters, coat with Nantua sauce, decorate with slices of truffles.

Parisienne. Same treatment, border shell with Duchese potato, coat with white wine sauce and chopped truffles, glaze.

The detailed recipe from Jaz is a good jumping off point for any of these.

Edited November 7, 2003 by MichaelB (log)

[fifi]

Cool... I am getting a direction here.

And I have an excuse to use those gratin pans. (Lets see... that would make each serving cost about $35, before I buy the food. I loves me toys.)

[project]

  Introduction:

 

  Here are my old notes on 'Coquilles St. Jacques

  Parisienne'.

 

  I developed these notes by working mostly from pages

  216-8 of:

 

  Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck,

  'Mastering the Art of French Cooking', Alfred A.

  Knopf, New York, 1967.

 

  and page 112 of:

 

  'Foods of the World: The Cooking of Provincial

  France', Time-Life Books, New York, 1968.

 

  with writing by M. F. K. Fisher and recipes by Michael

  Field.

 

  I cooked this dish frequently during the 1970's, and my

  notes are from 1978.

 

  When I was cooking this dish, good fresh mushrooms were

  difficult to find. So, I used (horrors!) canned sliced

  mushrooms. Now fresh white 'button' mushrooms in

  excellent condition are easy to find; however, since I

  find the flavors variable, I might still use canned

  mushrooms.

 

  For using fresh mushrooms, Child, et al. say to use 1/2

  pound sliced mushrooms with 1 pound of scallops. Field,

  et al. say to use 3/4 pound of sliced mushrooms with 2

  pounds of scallops. For comparison, recipe below uses

  net weight of 12 ounces of sliced canned mushrooms with 3

  pounds of scallops which makes this recipe comparatively

  light on mushrooms.

 

  Ingredients:

 

  3 pounds of (trimmed, ready to cook and eat) raw

  scallops, fresh or frozen, medium to large size 1.5 to

  3.0 cm in diameter. Note: Can use smaller scallops but

  have to be very careful not to overcook them.

 

  5 T minced shallots.

 

  3 cans of sliced mushrooms, 4 ounces net weight per can

  (or comparable quantity of sliced washed fresh white

  mushrooms).

 

  2 C French dry white Burgundy wine (e.g., Macon Blanc).

 

  1 bay leaf.

 

  small amount of freshly ground black pepper (say, 1/3

  turn on pepper mill).

 

  8 ounces bottled clam juice or fish stock.

 

  10 T all purpose flour.

 

  8 T butter (lightly salted or unsalted).

 

  1 1/2 C hot whole milk (or skim milk).

 

  1 C whipping cream.

 

  4 egg yolks (from USDA Large eggs).

 

  lemon juice to taste (of about one lemon).

 

  salt to taste.

 

  6 ounces grated Swiss cheese (optional).

 

  Equipment:

 

  pot of 6-8 quarts for poaching scallops.

 

  colander.

 

  bowl of about 2 quarts under colander.

 

  bowl of 2-3 quarts with ice water.

 

  bowl of 2-3 quarts set in bowl with ice water.

 

  wire mesh strainer.

 

  pot of 1-2 quarts for heating milk.

 

  wooden spatula.

 

  pot of about 3 quarts for sauce.

 

  bowl of about 2 quarts for yolks and cream.

 

  wire whip.

 

  8 baking dishes, each with volume 8-19 ounces.

 

  2 C Pyrex glass measure.

 

  Steps:

 

  Poach.

 

  In a pot of 6-8 quarts, place first seven ingredients

  (scallops through clam juice or fish stock) in pot. If

  using canned mushrooms, include the liquid from the cans

  and reserve the mushrooms. If using fresh mushroom

  slices, include the slices. If scallops are frozen, no

  need to thaw first.

 

  Place pot over medium to high heat and poach slowly.

  Once pot contents begin to simmer, continually test for

  doneness by extracting a sample and cutting in half (then

  return halves). Stop poaching when outsides of scallops

  are white and opaque on the outside and still slightly

  raw and translucent in the centers.

 

  Strain.

 

  Working quickly (so that scallops will not overcook),

  dump contents of pot into a colander set over a bowl of

  about 2 quarts. Then dump contents of colander into a

  stainless steel bowl of 2-3 quarts set in ice water.

 

  Extract and discard the bay leaf.

 

  If using canned mushrooms, add the mushrooms to the

  scallops, shallots, etc.

 

  Pour liquid from under the colander through a strainer

  back to poaching pot of 6-8 quarts. Dump strainer

  contents into bowl with scallops.

 

  Sauce.

 

  Place pot with cooking liquid (stock) over high heat and

  reduce rapidly (but without scorching -- which is

  possible) to 1 1/2 C -- make use of the 2 C Pyrex glass

  measure. Add any liquid present with scallops to pot and

  reduce again to 1 1/2 C. Reduce heat to simmer.

 

  In a small pot, slowly heat the milk to a slow simmer.

  Be careful not to let the milk boil, boil over, or scorch

  -- all of which are easy to do.

 

  In a 3 quart pot over low to medium heat, place butter

  and flour. Using a wooden spatula, constantly stir

  butter and flour to gently melt the butter and mix in the

  flour to make a roux. Bubble the roux slowly with

  constant stirring for 60 seconds (measured). If the roux

  starts to bubble too quickly, then lift the pot from the

  heat and continue stirring with the wooden spatula.

  Note: The wooden spatula contacts the bottom of the pot

  better than a metal tool and, thus, does better at the

  mixing. But, if work carefully, then a metal cooking

  spoon is acceptable as a substitute.

 

  Working quickly so that roux remains hot, off heat, add

  simmering stock all at once, start rapid constant mixing

  with a wire whip, place over medium heat, and continue

  whipping until mixture is smooth. Be sure whip reaches

  all part of the pot and does not leave unmixed portions

  near the intersection of the pot bottom and the pot

  sides. Mixture will be quite stiff. Note: This

  technique of adding simmering stock to hot roux all at

  once tends to work very well; usually the mixture bubbles

  vigorously right at first and becomes quite smooth

  quickly with very little whipping. Further, with the

  mixture stiff, whipping will 'shear' the mixture enough

  to help spread out any non-uniform parts.

 

  With constant whipping, still over medium heat, slowly

  blend in hot milk. Whip and bubble slowly until mixture

  is smooth and then remove from heat.

 

  Do not burn mixture: If at any time pot becomes too hot,

  simply lift from burner and continue whipping.

 

  In a bowl of about 1 quart, use a wire whip to mix egg

  yolks and cream.

 

  With constant whipping of the yolks and cream, slowly add

  1/3rd of the hot sauce (note: placing the bowl on a towel

  can hold the bowl and permit doing this work with just

  two hands instead of three), start by adding sauce one T

  at a time to heat yolk-cream mixture gently -- don't want

  to scramble the egg yolks and do want the whole mixture

  to be stable.

 

  Add mixture of yolks, cream, and sauce back to the pot

  with the other 2/3rds of the sauce and whip until

  uniform. Place over low to medium heat and with constant

  whipping bring to simmer. Over very low heat, with

  whipping, add lemon juice to taste and salt to taste.

 

  Assemble.

 

  Drain scallop mixture again, and discard any remaining

  liquid.

 

  Cut scallops to desired serving size.

 

  Add about 1/3rd of the sauce to the scallops, shallots,

  mushrooms and mix. Distribute this mixture among eight

  baking dishes each with volume 8-10 ounces.

 

  Top with grated Swiss cheese if desired.

 

  Store.

 

  Place 8 dishes uncovered in refrigerator to chill.

 

  When chilled, place each dish in a plastic freezer bag

  and seal.

 

  Heat.

 

  To serve, place desired number of dishes on a sheet of

  foil (to catch any overflow) and place in a 350 degree F

  oven until sauce bubbles around the edges, about 15

  minutes.

 

  If desired, can then lightly brown the tops under a

  broiler.

 

  Sauce tends to be a bit unstable; hence, with boiling

  during reheating, there can be some separation. Heating

  in a microwave oven is a good alternative.

 

  Serve.

 

  One dish makes a large lunch, a large supper first

  course, a moderate supper main course.

 

  Serve with good French white Burgundy and French bread.

 

  Notes.

 

  Can do much the same starting with diced breast of

  chicken. Here use chicken stock instead of clam juice or

  fish stock!

 

  It might help to brine the chicken before poaching.

 

  Can just make the sauce without poaching any meat and use

  the sauce: E.g., can get fresh lump backfin crab meat,

  moisten with simple Bechamel, wrap in crepes, arrange in

  a baking dish, warm, top (modern horror!) with the hot

  sauce, top with the cheese, brown under a broiler. Last

  time I did this, my parents came for dinner and at the

  end my mother, compromising her usual propriety, reached

  for the baking dish ... -- passed the KFC test!

 

  I discussed some of these things in the thread on

 

  Seafood Crepes Mornay

 

  Here the roux with 10 T of flour has 2 T more than the

  usual proportions -- some minor cheating.

 

  Here the bubbling of the roux for 60 seconds is not the

  only option: There are claims that this process does not

  really result in a genuine roux and that, instead, the

  roux should be bubbled enough to 'develop the gluten' and

  give off a "faint odor of almonds" for a "blonde roux"

  and that the resulting sauce will be more stable.

[fifi]

project... that is the best.

I had come up with just about the same technique but you have really clarified it. I was wondering about doing this ahead (like today) and putting the gratins in the fridge so that I could just pop them in the oven tomorrow. You answered that one nicely.

Your tip about using a wooden spatula for making roux is absolutely brilliant... of course, that is what I use. It is that kind of helpful detail that is so valuable.

I think this is going to turn out rather pretty. The scallops will be in white LeCreuset small gratins set on a large white porcelain plate with the roasted asparagus on the side. I may finely dice some red bell pepper for garnish on the asparagus. I have to think about the flavor, though. I haven't decided. I just seem to want a touch of red. Maybe I will just garnish the rim of the plates. *still thinking*

Thanks for the great post.

[project]

  Glad you liked the post -- hope even more you like the dish!

 

  Ordinarily I'd ask for something in return, e.g., a free

  sample of the dish, play the piano part of a Mozart sonata

  while I struggle through the violin part, etc., but not this

  time!

 

  By some law of the universe, I only catch errors after

  something is posted.

 

  In this case, the first outrageous egregious error is:

 

  8 baking dishes, each with volume 8-19 ounces.

 

  which of course should read:

 

  8 baking dishes, each with volume 8-10 ounces.

 

  One addition might be to include in the poaching liquid some

  fresh parsley and fresh thyme wrapped in tied cheesecloth --

  don't know why I omitted them, but they could darken the color

  of the stock. Also a standard approach to the black pepper is

  just to include a few pepper corns in the cheesecloth.

 

  For

 

  Place pot over medium to high heat and poach slowly.

  Once pot contents begin to simmer, continually test for

  doneness by extracting a sample and cutting in half (then

  return halves). Stop poaching when outsides of scallops

  are white and opaque on the outside and still slightly

  raw and translucent in the centers.

 

  a slightly more complete description would be

 

  Place pot over medium to high heat and poach slowly.

  Once pot contents begin to simmer, reduce heat to low and

  continually test for doneness by extracting a sample and

  cutting in half (then return halves). Stop poaching when

  outsides of scallops are white and opaque on the outside

  and still slightly raw and translucent in the centers.

 

  You mentioned:

 

  I think this is going to turn out rather pretty.

 

  Actually, it usually does come out rather pretty. Usually the

  sauce is a nice pale yellow. Alas, depending apparently on

  some random property of the scallops, the reduced poaching

  liquid can be surprisingly dark; then the finished dish is

  still okay but not quite as pretty.

 

  The salt and lemon juice are quite important, e.g., provide

  two of the top four in:

 

  Gray Kunz and Peter Kaminsky, 'The Elements of Taste',

  ISBN 0-316-60874-2, Little, Brown and Company, Boston,

  2001.

 

  with the other two being sugar and pepper. I'd say that the

  'seven pillars of flavor' (apologies to T. E. Lawrence!) are

  salt, pepper, acid, sugar, onion-garlic, browned, and fat, and

  this dish has a touch of pepper and, otherwise, does well on

  salt, acid, onion-garlic (shallots), and fat, and the fat is

  the best -- butter and cream. If you put some Swiss cheese on

  the top and get some browning, then you get one more.

 

  It's old fashioned food, but it's good.

 

  When the poached scallops are resting while you are making the

  sauce, they can start to dry on the edges. Stirring to cool

  in the bowl set in ice water should help. If you stir enough

  actually to get them cool, then might cover them to reduce the

  drying. Or, just keep stirring occasionally to distribute any

  drying effect.

 

  There is another option, an 'out of phase' option: From

  whatever the previous day, have the sauce ready. Get the

  sauce to the simmer. Poach the scallops, drain them, combine

  with the simmering sauce and SERVE right away, no waiting.

 

  If it's really good, then for background music use Wagner's

  'Siegfried Idyll', e.g., by von Karajan and 'Wiener

  Philharmoniker'. If it is still better, then play Mussorgsky's

  'The Great Gate of Kiev', Wagner's 'The Entrance of the Gods

  into Valhalla' followed by the 'Liebestod' from 'Tristan and

  Isolde' -- e.g., the Ormandy - Philadelphia performance -- and

  finish with the the overture to Tannhauser. Should be

  'dramatic' enough! Of course, Beethovan's Ninth Symphony

  would be an alternative!

 

  Of course, if you are going to make this for a 'romantic'

  dinner, might sneak in the part from 'Lohengrin', e.g., with

  Ormandy, the Philadelphia, and the Mormon Choir. Should get

  the message across even if the scallops don't!

 

  Enjoy!

[marie-louise]

Project, I too enjoy your posts. But I have the hardest time reading them-I can barely see them. Not only is the print small, it is a faint grey instead of black. I'm on a Mac-do other people have this problem or is it just a Mac quirk? Can someone offer advice to either Project on how to adjust the font or me on how to adjust my browser?

[Bux]

Project, I too enjoy your posts. But I have the hardest time reading them-I can barely see them. Not only is the print small, it is a faint grey instead of black. I'm on a Mac-do other people have this problem or is it just a Mac quirk? Can someone offer advice to either Project on how to adjust the font or me on how to adjust my browser?

I'm a Mac guy myself. I see project has posted his message using html coding to keep the formatting, but hasn't specified a font. I suspect the font displayed is determined by our browsers. The preformatted post shows up in whatever you have selected as a monospaced font. I suspect you may be using Microsoft Explorer which is not always the most Mac (or user) friendly browser. If you are running OS X 10.2 or higher, you should be using Safari. It's built for the Mac and just works better on all sites that are not specifically written to match Explorer's peculiar rules. Nevertheless, you can change font faces and sizes in "Preferences" in both browsers and I assume in Netscape and others as well. I've changed the font size in both browsers and the change shows up right away in Explorer, but not in Safari. I may need to quit and restart Safari or change something else as well, but I suspect you are using Explorer because that's the browser in which project's post appears very light on my monitor.

[project]

marie-louise:

"Project, I too enjoy your posts. But I have the hardest time

reading them-I can barely see them. Not only is the print

small, it is a faint grey instead of black. I'm on a Mac-do

other people have this problem or is it just a Mac quirk? Can

someone offer advice to either Project on how to adjust the

font or me on how to adjust my browser?"

Sorry. I post recipes with the HTML tag PRE for

'pre-formatted'. That way, with most browsers, get a

monospaced font, like in old fashioned typing, and honoring of

leading blank spaces. So, vertical alignment is easy, much

easier than working with HTML tags for 'lists' of items, etc.

My fancy word whacking formatting is D. Knuth's TeX, the

international standard for mathematical material; it is fully

up to doing recipes, and much more, including music, but is

grimly difficult and, in practice, is limited to people that

work with a lot of advanced mathematics. But, this means that

I don't bother learning details of HTML.

eGullet has an option for a 'printer-friendly' format, and my

stuff might be easier to read there. Another option is just

to download the HTML file and read my original in any favorite

flat ASCII text editor that has monospaced fonts. Another

option may be to use standard browser functionality to

'select' the text on the screen, copy the selected text to the

system 'clipboard', and then 'paste' the text from the

clipboard into any other program, editor, word whacking

program, that will display text. So, what comes across via

the clipboard may be just the text without regard for font

sizes or colors so that your second display of the text could

be in very different sizes and colors.

Otherwise, your browser may have some options for font size

and font and background colors.

Here I am posting just flat ASCII text but without any HTML

tags at all, thus, letting the eGullet server do whatever it

wants. Thus, this text, while less good for recipes, should

be easier to read.

I have some similar problems: In my browser, the main eGullet

screens look like black text on a purple background. Well,

purple has red, and, like about 25% of the male population, I

am 'partially red-green' color blind which means that I can

see fire engines as red, pretty blond girls with long

ponytails tied with red ribbons and bulky red cardigan

sweaters and long full pleated red plaid skirts all as red

(but I digress!), but see the purple background as nearly

black and, thus, mostly can't read the text. So, I can only

read the eGullet material by some of the tricks I mentioned

above.

[marie-louise]

... you can change font faces and sizes in "Preferences" in both browsers and I assume in Netscape and others as well. I've changed the font size in both browsers and the change shows up right away in Explorer...

Thank you, thank you, I changed my Monospace font to Arial 24 and now I can read Project's posts!!!

PS I do use Explorer and the latest OS that's not Jaguar (we have it, just haven't installed it.) I tried and loved Safari a few months ago, but there were still a few sites that it dodn't work with, so I switched back.

[Bux]

Coquilles St. Jacques is the French term for what we call scallops in English. Coquille is the French word for shell and the scallop shell is the symbol of St. Jacques (Saint James in English). Pilgrims who traveled to Santiago would return with scallop shells, real or sculpted, as souvenirs. Scallops are cooked in many ways in France and the US (where broiled and fried were most common) but French restaurants, particularly in the US at a certain time, popularized them as served in a large scallop shell with cream sauce and mushrooms gratineed with a bit of mornay sauce. They usually appeared on the menu simply as Coquilles St. Jacques and one know exactly how they were prepared. Even in France, if no other preparation is noted, this was how you would get them. They were, and are, available not only in restaurants, but pre-cooked in the shells ready for the home oven or broiler, in traiteurs and epiceries all over France.

Properly prepared, they were, and are, a wonderful rich dish. The addition of some shrimp or small mussels makes them better in my opinion. It is an old fashioned dish in many ways. For one thing, in spite of all the warnings about not overcooking the scallops, they are invariably overdone (to my taste) when they finish the final broiling. Contemporary taste buds are also likely to find the rich cream masks the delicate flavor of the scallops. Traditional roux based veloute sauces, such as what's done in preparing this dish, may seem pasty today no matter how well the flour is cooked in the butter and no matter how long the sauce is simmered. The margins of my Julia Child books show notes reducing the amount of flour in these sauces over the years until the point where I almost never use them. I've always found the use of cheese with fish and especially with scallops to result in a less than satisfactory combination. Scallops are just too delicate and too expensive to be overwhelmed with a mornay sauce, in my opinion, although I'd note that my opinion goes against classic tradition. You still see these stuffed shells in the refigerated display cases in France with thick congealed sauce and a pile of grated gruyere cheese on top. My suggestion is to assemble the dish with the sauce very hot from the sauce pan rather than reheating the whole thing in the oven so as to minimize overcooking the scallops which could be cut thickly or left whole (I really prefer my scallops rare and still translucent, but I'm not sure that can easily be accomplished in this dish) and to cover the top not with mornay sauce, but with a tablespoon of lightly whipped cream. Then put the filled shells, or gratin dishes, in a hot broiler for as long as it takes to brown the whipped cream. There would be no cheese at all in the dish.

[Bux]

Marie-louise -- The problem with using Arial is that I don't believe it is monospaced and thus may through off the formatting where text is arranged in columns such as recipe ingredients. I'm not sure what are the best choices of a monospace Mac font these days. Monaco used to be a good standard. You might try that.

Project -- sorry to hear you have difficulty seeing our pages. They actually appear in a color I'd describe as blue, not purple, and for me the text is on a background that is almost white. From what I've seen of the next version of our software, it's going to be shades of red and tan. That may well be far worse for you. I'm going to pass your information on to the guys who are responsible for the software and for the graphics and colors used on the site. In the past, we've had several "skins" available to allow members to see the site with different colored backgrounds. I'm not sure what we can do to modify anything for you, but I also assume this is not just your problem, but one that affects others.

One other thing. Your text editor sends returns at the end of every line you type, so your posts all have very short lines on my monitor instead of wrapping with the size of the window. I'm not sure that's a real problem, but I thought I'd mention it. We may even have discussed this before.

[project]

Bux:

Thanks for your clarification of the meaning of Coquille St.

Jacques and description of the present role in France.

I agree on the cheese; I don't think it goes well with the

scallops or this dish under discussion. I mostly omit the

cheese; if I do include it, then it is not very much on top.

Good to see that not everything in France has the most well

considered matching of flavors!

Of course, the sauce I described is not a Mornay sauce. It's

just a veloute, plus egg yolks and cream, which may make it a

'Parisienne'.

I found another outrageous egregious error in my recipe! I

never said what to do with the other 2/3rds of the sauce!

Readers will likely see the answer: Once the mixture of the

first 1/3rd of the sauce and solids are in the baking dishes,

then pour the rest of the sauce over the top.

So, this dish has the solids thoroughly masked, buried, under

sauce and, thus, is the opposite of 'Nouvelle Cuisine' where

we get a plate with radius of three feet, put the yellow sauce

on the bottom, use some sauce of contrasting color, maybe

raspberry puree, in a squeeze bottle to draw rococo swirls on

the sauce, perhaps drag a knife point through the swirls, pile

the solids in the center as high as possible, e.g., like the

Eiffel Tower, and put a few shreds of something, maybe a

crepe, on top of that! That's the version I put on the floor

for my kitty cat, and then I eat the original version! Ah,

such sarcasm!

I agree with you that some shrimp could help this dish. Could

also try some lobster claw meat, some crayfish tails, etc.

Alas, I am unsure of just how I would cook these extra meats.

E.g., the broth from poached shrimp can be very strong. More

details could help!

And, somewhere we are going to grind up the shrimp shells?

And, somehow, we have to get shrimp with the heads still on

and somehow use the heads? The shrimp, do they have to still

be alive? My father used to have some big wash tubs, some big

nets, some lanterns, and catch wash tubs full of live shrimp

near Jacksonville, FL, but that was a long time ago! And we

have to use some of the 'insides' of the lobster, parts I

don't understand? And I wouldn't have a clue about how to

include a mussel, oyster, or clam in this dish. Maybe with

some garlic we could make it taste like Bouillabaisse? Get

some tomato in there somehow? Maybe some curry powder? Top it

with some truffle shreds? Diat has a dish with some

demi-glace on the bottom.

With the 'out of phase' variation I mentioned, where there is

no reheating, might be able to get the scallops not

overcooked.

I'm not much into the delicate flavor of the scallops. I do

like the sauce; I don't mind the flour in the roux. I'm just

a flour, butter, cream, eggs pre-Novelle Cuisine kind of guy!

What can you expect for someone that also likes Memphis 'Q?

But, I used to eat nearly weekly at Harrald's (Harrald Boerger

and Eva Durrschmidt) about 50 miles north of New York City.

They received five stars from the Mobil Oil Travel Guide for

at least 14 years in a row; the only longer record in the US

was from a restaurant in Cincinnati. Over time, I drank all

their Morey St. Denis 1985 half bottles! By the glass they

had some fantastic Macon Blanc, from a little NW of town,

imported by Neal Rosenthal's Mad Rose Group. Fantastic. Had

all three I wanted: crisp, dry, and clean! Sorry,

California! So, I never got to taste their collection of

Meursault!

Well, they had a substitute for the traditional Coquille St.

Jacques. There was some mixture of seafoods, likely no

cheese, perhaps no flour or starch at all, and relatively

little fat. Yet, the sauce was viscous and the flavor was

terrific. NOT easy to do! The flavors were very bright and

fresh, and part of that was some onion (shallot, scallion?)

flavor, yet, the amount of onion was really tiny. I began to

suspect that they put the onion in by slicing with some razor

sharp device able to make slices thin enough for seeing under

a light transmission microscope! It was a masterpiece, many

steps of selection, balance, care, and technique above what I

described. Their version sounds closer to what you might

like.

In fact, they were able to get so much fat out of the food --

e.g., a very special terrific low fat pate with Cumberland

sauce -- that I tried to order some things that did have some

fat, if only the butter with the bread and, maybe, some

whipped cream with a dessert, so that I could leave not still

feeling hungry! Net, in the hands of a real master chef, it's

actually possible to do terrific things without all that

'glop' that I like and find easy to cook.

I have communicated with Jason about 'skins' and Web browsers.

I do suggest that whatever is done with 'skins', there be good

contrast at all wavelengths between the characters and the

background. There is an easy standard solution called black

and white!

So far, I just read the printer-friendly version or download

the HTML, wash it through some software I have to remove the

HTML, and format what is left. Anything I like, I want to

keep, and I prefer to keep just a flat ASCII version.

Yes, I prepare my posts using just a simple old flat ASCII

text editor. I let the editor 'flow' the lines to about 72

characters per line. Then each line ends with a line feed and

a carriage return. The rest is up to the eGullet server

software and individual browsers.

Even with my glop sauce, it's probably better than the ersatz

Memphis pork BBQ I posted recently!

Hope marie-louise gets a good dish!

[fifi]

Good discussion, Bux. But, the birthday girl likes the old-fashioned St. Jacques so I am going with project's way. I will probably restrict the cheese to a light sprinkling on the top and I may leave out the egg yolk to reduce the richness. The cream has to stay, though.

All this bit about formatting... I don't understand the problem. Why not just hit the add reply button instead of playing games with other text editors? Let the site software handle it and the chances of other viewers having a problem go way down. I don't find any real problem or undue restrictions doing it that way. It's a discussion thread... not a manuscript, guys.

[fifi]

OK guys... the scallops were an absolute hit. I did the sauce without the egg yolks but with a little extra cream. I used fresh muchrooms. There were some really nice button mushrooms so I used fresh. I sprinkled the top of the gratins with a little gruyere cheese, not a lot.

That was the best St. Jacques I have ever had, anywhere. The rest of the party said the same thing.

Many thanks, project.

[snowangel]

OK guys... the scallops were an absolute hit. I did the sauce without the egg yolks but with a little extra cream. I used fresh muchrooms. There were some really nice button mushrooms so I used fresh. I sprinkled the top of the gratins with a little gruyere cheese, not a lot.

That was the best St. Jacques I have ever had, anywhere. The rest of the party said the same thing.

Many thanks, project.

And did they look absolutely gorgeous in your new Creuset dishes? Photo?

[fifi]

Actually, the little white gratins did look lovely! I thought about taking a picture but I don't have any way to post pictures, so I didn't. The green asparagus off to the side of the gratins set vertically on the big white porcelain plate made for a nice composition, spare and sort of contemporary. Quite artistic, if I do say so myself.

My nephew (smooth talking attorney that he is) came to the table and said... "Holy shit!"

Then he took a bite of the scallops and said... "Holy Shit! umm... This is serious stuff."

I think what took the recipe over the top was the reduction of the poaching liquid. The shallots, mushrooms and wine did not over-power the scallop. It just made the sauce more scallopy (new word), I mean it screamed SCALLOP. Luckily, these were very nice scallops. The acidity of the wine was a perfect foil to the richness of the sauce, especially after balancing it at the end with a couple of squeezes of lemon. The sprinkling of the gruyere was just enough. You wouldn't want gobs of cheese on this, IMHO.

Edited November 9, 2003 by fifi (log)