Scallops With Tarragon Butter

Submitted by Oolala

"From Food & Wine ad on my computer home page today! Thought I'd share. It says "You can't go wrong with scallops in a white-wine butter sauce, and tarragon makes it all the better. Be careful not to heat the sauce too much or it may separate"."

 

• Ready In: 20mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 1⁄2 lbs sea scallops, dried well
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1⁄3 cup dry white wine
• 1 grated lemon, zest of
• 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, chopped

directions

1. In a large nonstick frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil with 1/2 tablespoon of the butter over moderate heat. Season the scallops with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and the pepper. Put half the scallops in the pan. Cook until browned, about 2 minutes. Turn and cook until browned on the second side and just done, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove.
2. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil with 1/2 tablespoon of the butter in the pan and cook the remaining scallops. Remove.
3. Wipe out the pan.
4. Put the pan over moderately low heat and add the wine. Boil until reduced to approximately 2 tablespoons, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting.
5. Whisk the remaining 4 tablespoons butter into the wine. The butter should not melt completely but just soften to form a smooth sauce.
6. Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, the lemon zest, and the tarragon. Pour the sauce over the scallops.

Reviews

[dicentra]

Yum!! I found this same recipe in one of my cookbooks (might have been Food & Wine?) Excellent, easy recipe. I served it with plain orzo, and sauteed snap peas with mushrooms. The leftover butter sauce got put over everything. Very rich, but DH loved it. I used dry sherry in place of the wine, but otherwise followed the recipe. Yum!

 

[ReeLani]

Made, unexpectedly, tonight when DH surprised me with a pound of big sea scallops. I love scallops but was nervous that I'd ruin them as I'd never cooked them before. Well, they turned out great! I got the timing right and so the texture was smooth and velvety as a scallop should be. The lemon tarragon white wine sauce was a great blend. I served the scallops and sauce over angel hair pasta and we both ate them up quickly. In future I might use a touch less butter, for health reasons, but I know we'll make this again when we can afford more scallops, or have something else to celebrate.