Name: Coquilles Saint-Jacques
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 12 large scallops, roe removed; 250 ml dry white wine; 2 shallots, finely chopped; 1 bay leaf; 250 g button mushrooms, finely chopped; 50 g unsalted butter; 40 g plain flour; 200 ml whole milk; 100 ml double cream; 2 tbsp chopped parsley; 1 tsp fine sea salt; White pepper and nutmeg; 600 g mashed potato, stiff, for piping; 100 g Gruyère, grated; 4 scallop shells or gratin dishes

Coquilles Saint-Jacques

Scallops poached in wine, folded into a mushroom velouté, piped back into their shells under Gruyère and browned. A 1960s dinner-party centrepiece that deserves its comeback.

45 min total Serves 4 servings Medium

How to Cook Coquilles Saint-Jacques

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Simmer the wine with the shallots and bay for 3 minutes.
Slide in the scallops and poach 60 to 90 seconds only, until barely opaque. Lift them out immediately and set aside.
Strain the poaching liquid and reserve it. Discard the bay.
Melt the butter and cook the mushrooms hard for 8 minutes until their water has evaporated and they begin to colour.
Stir in the flour and cook 2 minutes, then add the reserved poaching liquid, the milk and the cream, whisking smooth.
Simmer 6 minutes until thick enough to coat a spoon heavily. Season with salt, white pepper and nutmeg, and stir in the parsley.
Cut each scallop in half horizontally and fold them gently into the sauce off the heat.
Pipe a border of mashed potato around the rim of each shell, then spoon the mixture into the centre.
Scatter with Gruyère and grill for 4 to 5 minutes until bubbling and browned. Serve at once.

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Things to Watch For

Ninety seconds in the wine, no more. The grill finishes them and a twice-cooked scallop is ruined.
The sauce should be thicker than seems right — it loosens under the grill.
Assemble ahead and refrigerate, then grill from cold for 8 minutes. It is the ideal dinner-party starter.

Ingredient Swaps

In a sauce, full-fat crème fraîche can usually take the place of the double cream; single cream is thinner and more likely to split if it boils, so keep it below a simmer.
A dry vermouth keeps for longer than an open bottle of white wine and is the closer swap than a random white left in the fridge; for an alcohol-free version, use the same amount of stock with a squeeze of lemon.

Good to Know About Coquilles Saint-Jacques

The scallops are poached for barely a minute and then removed while the sauce is built from their poaching liquor — a scallop cooked twice, once in the pan and once under the grill, turns to rubber. Piping duchess potato around the rim is not decoration: it dams the sauce so it browns rather than running out.

On the Table Alongside

A white Burgundy or Chablis · Crusty bread · A simple green salad to follow

Leftovers

Assemble up to a day ahead and refrigerate. Once grilled, eat immediately.