Japanese mollusks with a tangy lift

Japan Times

5 days ago

The subtly sweet Saroma scallops, which are also delicious raw, derive their name from Lake Saroma located in Okhotsk subprefecture in northeastern Hokkaido. From a fisherman friend, I learned that the lake's semi-saline conditions served as the perfect nursery for the baby mollusks, which are later laboriously moved to the open ocean to mature.
In summer, I usually enjoy Saroma scallops with a splash of shoyu and a dollop of Hokkaido butter after grilling them on the half-shell over an open flame. Over time, I also developed my own recipe for the mollusks by borrowing from the classic Western dish of Oysters Kilpatrick, in which Worcestershire sauce is mixed with lemon to top the oysters.
In my version, I replace the oysters with scallops and top them with a mix of light soy sauce and tangy Japanese-style black vinegar. Like its Western counterpart, it is topped with butter and bacon bits and grilled.
Your mollusks need not be of the Saroma variety — just use the scallops you have available. You can cook them over an open fire or charcoal barbecue but an indoor grill, a Japanese cooktop with a fish grill (mine fits three scallops at a time), an oven, or even a toaster oven would work, too.
While Saroma scallops are preferable, you can use just about any variety of mollusks for this recipe. |
SIMON DALY
Serves 6
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
60 milliliters light tamari (soy sauce fermented only from soybeans) or light soy sauce
60 milliliters kurosu black vinegar
6 Saroma scallops
30 grams bacon (slices or chunk)
20 grams butter
Directions:
1. Add the tamari and black vinegar to a small saucepan and, on a medium heat, reduce the mixture by half. Set the reduction aside.
2. Carefully open the scallops with a knife, scraping away the flesh from the flat shell and leaving the flesh in the rounded lower shell. Loosen the edges and its underside, cutting away any parts you don't want to eat. I prefer to remove the black digestive gland, leaving the rest intact.
3. Finely dice the bacon and lightly color them in a nonstick frypan.
4. Add some water to the bottom of your fish grill and crumple up a little foil for the scallops to stand flat on.
5. Top the scallops with a spoon of reduced sauce each, then add the bacon bits and a little butter. Grill them for 5 to 7 minutes until they are sizzling, colored and firmed. On an open fire, with direct heat from below, they will cook slightly differently but equally well; the timing will depend on the strength of the fire.