Scallops for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

I am a seafood lover through and through and scallops have to be one of my favourite seafoods (as well as Jase's) IN DA WORLD. Simply sizzled quickly in a hot frying pan and topped with freshly cracked pepper and sea salt and a drizzle of lemon juice, is the bees knees. But THIS recipe is on another level.

We recently had a dozen of these as an appetizer before dinner over the Easter weekend, and I don't know why we don't cook scallops at home more often.  I think this is probably the first time I've cooked them in the shell, as a stand alone dish and my-oh-my it was SO delicious.

Roald Dahl is one of my favourite childhood book authors (CAN. NOT. WAIT, for the B.F.G movie!) , and when I discovered his model-turned-food-writer granddaughter launched a cook book I stupidly chalked her book up to be a frilly celebrity cookbook made with pretty pictures and not much else... that is until I watched her accompanying cooking show series on TV.

She seems like an absolute darling and when I saw her make these Scallops in their chilli garlicky marinade with a side of fresh mushy peas, I knew I wanted to replicate it at home. If you're lucky enough to find big scallops in thick gloriously chalky white shells like the ones that Sophie Dahl has in this recipe, then you definitely should stick to her cooking time of 2-3 minutes each side.

I was limited to what we found at the Sydney Fish Market and didn't have the other half of each scallop shell so they were cooked fairly quickly, as lonely open shells on our BBQ with the hood down.

Things I did differently with the recipe:

• My scallops were smaller so I just spooned the marinade on and cooked them open on the bbq grill for only 2-3 minutes, in batches of 6, with the hood down
• Before chucking them on the grill, I briefly torched the scallops so they had a nice smokey caramelized taste.
• I didn't use Sorrel in my peas as I didn't know what it was but the peas were totally delicious and good on their own! (I've since served it as a side with lamb and pork)
• We had some crispy prosciutto with the scallops too (not pictured), and that actually went well as a big flavour bomb!

I reckon you could let the marinade soak on the scallops for a little while, with a bit more lemon juice, and then eat it as Scallop ceviche?
I wouldn't ordinarily think I could eat seafood for breakfast, but after having these, I would be the happiest girl in the world if we could have freshly cooked scallops for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

x