Sea Candy

There is a little farm in the sea near here. Just off of Snake Island, near Graves’ Island, there is a farm hanging in the water. It has been there for at least fifteen years. Not many are aware it is there. In fact, until recently, I had almost forgotten it existed.

Margaret Webb, in Apples to Oysters, writes that no one seems to know it exists. Even the Department of Fisheries and Oceans seemed to have forgotten it was there. She began to call its farmer a ghost farmer.

It is there, of that I have no question. Its produce has been making its way to the little, but lively, Chester Seaside Artisan and Farmers’ Market on Friday afternoons. Making its way in the form of mussels and live scallops, lifted from their suspended net home only hours before. 

To the uninitiated, a whole live scallop could be a little daunting. Hundreds of little eyes stare out at you, the roe, especially in the summer, is fairly large and, to most, unfamiliar. But, one taste, for any seafood lover, would surely win them over. 

We are spoiled for fresh seafood here. Stephen, before he spent much time here, would roll his eyes when, after ordering mussels or scallops somewhere else, I would complain that they weren’t very fresh or that they had been frozen. He now understands and the eye-rolling has been replaced with a raised, ‘Are you sure you want to do that?’ eyebrow if I begin to order seafood he has deemed may be dubious in origin. Chalk up one for Nova Scotia.

These scallops are the freshest of the fresh, and if you ever happen to see them in a restaurant or a fish market, get them. They are alive, they are fresh. They are divine.

I have cooked them twice this summer, once with white wine and garlic and herbs like moules marinière. The second time was on the half shell on the barbecue, which meant, that even if they weren't tastier, at least someone else, namely Stephen, would do the cooking. 

When you cook them on the half shell, the scallop flavour is concentrated as the shell is heated and it is an even more perfect ocean taste. 

I spooned a little bit of a white wine reduction with shallots and garlic and fresh herbs and butter, of course, over the scallop. Then they cook in even more loveliness and are a perfect little bite. Serve them as the main course with a couple of salads. You can also serve them as hors d’oeuvres with a little cocktail fork but make sure that you and your guests leave room for supper. 

The scallops do have to be shucked, but not removed from their shells. This is dead easy as well. None of the fuss or muss of oyster shucking. You have to have a little speed but once you get the hang of it, you will whizz through forty or so scallops in no time. They will likely be slightly open but, if not, let them sit in the sink quietly for a few minutes until they let their ‘guard down’ and open up a little. It’s like the scallop equivalent of a couple of glasses of sauvignon blanc.

I have found myself fairly inarticulate in describing how to get these little guys loosened from their shells so you can shuck the scallops like this but don’t shuck them like this, even if it is a little entertaining, because, if you have checked with your vendor, these are perfectly safe to eat whole. Don’t throw all the ‘extra’ bits away. That is what makes them so darn good.

What you want to end up with are the scallops, whole, with all their extra bits on the more cup-like side of the shell (one side is flatter than the other).

I had a ‘large’ bag of scallops, this was about forty or so. That is enough for at least six adults, we had five with leftovers, as a main course. 

I used parsley, chives, fennel fronds and a little bit of sorrel. You can use whatever fresh herbs you have, just plain old parsley would be just fine.

If you don’t have a barbecue, you can cook these under your  oven broiler/grill. You may have to adjust the cooking time. When you are cooking these on the barbecue, make sure you keep the heat as high as you can, you don’t want these to boil, you want them grilled.

Barbecued Live Scallops

1 Large bag live scallops on the half shell

1 cup white wine

2 large shallots finely chopped

1/2 cup butter

2 cloves garlic minced

Fresh herbs finely chopped

Fresh ground black pepper

Put wine in saucepan over medium heat and reduce to 1/4 cup. Add shallots, garlic and butter and simmer until shallots are translucent. Remove from heat and stir in herbs and pepper.

Heat barbecue to high heat or your oven broiler. 

Spoon a teaspoon of the wine and butter mixture over each scallop.

Place scallops, in shell, on the grill as quickly and as carefully as you can, you don't want to spill the wine and butter. Close the barbecue lid and cook for about three minutes until the ‘meat’ is opaque.

Remove from barbecue and serve.

Breaking my Rules

My nephew turns seven on Monday. His passions are origami and Star Wars. I wanted to make him a cake but I didn’t want to make this. I don’t have the skills, space, staff or patience to make this. And, although this is pretty sweet, I was sure it wasn’t going to pass the taste test.

So, I broke one of my, until this point, strictest rules. I put inedible things on and around the cake. 113 of them to be exact. Paper cranes. And, I am glad I did. This was definitely the most fun I have had making a cake. 

Disclaimer: Because I wasn’t planning on posting this, I just have to because I loved it so much, the following are guidelines only. I didn’t make any notes.

Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream and Raspberry Jam

The cake is my Go-To cake. I made a triple recipe (you will either need a very large mixer and a very large mixing bowl or make two 1-1/2 batches) and wound up with a 10-inch, an 8-inch and a 6-inch cake, all about 3 inches high. The cooking time needs to be increased a lot for the 10 and the 8 and just a little for the 6. It took about 70 minutes for the larger two and about 40 for the smaller one.

The icing ratio is 1 cup unsalted butter to 3-1/2 cups icing sugar plus 1/2 tablespoon vanilla bean paste (or the seeds of 1/2 a vanilla bean) and 1 tablespoon milk. I used 4 cups of butter and 14 cups of icing sugar but I was making a pretty big cake. An 8-inch, two layer cake would probably be fine with a 1 or 2 cup batch.

I trimmed the top of the cakes to make sure they were flat and then I sliced each of them into three layers and spread a layer of good quality raspberry jam and buttercream between each. I then crumb-coated the cake. 

Crumb coating is covering the cake with a thin layer of icing to keep the crumbs from getting into the ‘good’ layer.

I left the cakes in the fridge overnight at this point and iced them in the morning before attaching the paper cranes with royal icing.

Don't tell my daughters, but sometimes good things happen when you break the rules. And, it's fun too.

New York Yogurt Cheesecake

I have been sitting on this post for ages. Just as I was about to write it, I noticed a cheesecake post on here, one of the best food blogs ever. So, I waited, wondering whether I should post it now, or wait, or just not worry about it. Then, I decided that it isn’t really the same. In fact, it is just as much a New York Yogurt Cake as it is a New York cheesecake. 

I have never made a cheesecake that I have been 100% totally and completely happy with. I don’t know whether it is because I don’t love cheesecake or whether the ones I make just aren’t that good.  I have made them in restaurants and the feedback has been nothing but positive so I like to assume that it is the former.  I have the Cook’s Illustrated All-Time Best Recipes magazine and it has a New York cheesecake recipe with, apparently, the best way to bake one so that it comes out uncracked. I couldn’t remember ever making a crackless cheesecake so I thought I would give it a go again. Er, a go in the sense that I would follow the baking instructions but to hell with the actual recipe which, in case you haven’t noticed yet, I am fairly hopeless at sticking to.  Not that I, or my hips, needed an entire cheesecake in the fridge. I was hoping for an occasion when, luckily, we were invited to supper at some friends’ and I offered to bring dessert. 

When I worked at Lolita’s Lust, we started playing around with using pressed yogurt instead of cream cheese in the cheesecake. If memory serves, we never got it really right and it was always just okay.  I wanted to try it out again, because I can convince myself that yogurt, no matter what the fat content, is better for me than cheese.

This turned out really well, save for the cracks, which despite following the New York method, were San Andreas-like in size. To be fair, it was probably either my not following the recipe or my gas oven, which I don’t have a thermometer in. The shame, the shame...

I’ve also used rhubarb here, another recipe to get you ready for the glut and, selflessly, used some from-far-away strawberries to test the recipe because when they are in season, this will be even better. The rhubarb sauce makes a tart layer and the macerated berries a sweet freshness to compliment it.

The New York method says you should put the cheesecake into a 500º oven for ten minutes and then turn the heat down to 200º for around another 1 1/2 hours. Cook’s Illustrated says that the cake should be 150º and that if it gets to 160º, it will crack. I think that is if it hasn’t already cracked due to recipe mucking about with or dodgy oven temperatures. I am certainly not going to argue with them because they have made hundreds of cheesecakes testing this out. 

I would also put a baking sheet underneath the pan in case some of the butter leaks out of the crust. I never remember. Then you won’t have to rescue your cake from an oven full of acrid burnt butter smoke like I did.

The texture was really light, for a cheesecake anyway, and, I think, the yogurt gives the cake a lighter and fresher taste. It is a little more work to make the pressed yogurt but you have the added benefit of being able to convince yourself it is almost good for you.

The recipe here is a combination of my mom’s, some hit and misses from Lolita’s and some playing around in the kitchen.

New York Yogurt Cheesecake with Rhubarb Sauce and Strawberries

Crust (I always seem to make too much)

10 ounces graham cracker crumbs (you can make them easily just by chucking the crackers in the food processor)  

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons melted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Mix all three ingredients together. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a 10 inch springform pan. I used a smaller one and had extra crust and filling.

Cheesecake Filling

1 1/4 pounds pressed yogurt (you can find out how to make that here)

1 1/4 pounds cream cheese

5 large whole eggs

3 large egg yolks

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons lemon zest

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 500º. 

Beat cream cheese, yogurt, flour and sugar together until smooth. Add zest and vanilla. Then add eggs and yolks gradually, scraping the bowl down often to avoid any unmixed bits of cheese.

Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for ten minutes.

Turn heat down to 200º for about an hour and a half, or use a thermometer and bake until cake reaches 150º. Or until it is just a little jiggly in the center.

Remove from the oven and loosen from the edges of the pan with a knife but leave it to cool in the pan. When cooled, refrigerate overnight.

Rhubarb Sauce

5 cups chopped rhubarb (I used some from the freezer and cooked from frozen, cooking time for fresh shouldn’t vary too much)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 tablespoons water

In a large saucepan, put rhubarb and sugar and one tablespoon of water. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until rhubarb is softened, about fifteen minutes. Mix cornstarch with remaining tablespoon of water and stir into rhubarb. The mixture will go a little bit cloudy. Simmer and stir until the cloudiness is gone. Remove from heat and cool.

Macerated Strawberries

2 pounds strawberries give or take a few

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Wash, hull and slice strawberries. Mix with sugar and lemon juice and leave for a few minutes.

Pour the cooled rhubarb sauce onto the chilled cheesecake and return it to the fridge until you are ready to serve.

To serve, remove the cake from the springform pan and out it onto a cake plate. Top it with the macerated strawberries and slice. 

Seaweed Sprinkles

I had a call from our ‘fish guy’ the other evening announcing the arrival of some fresh scallops and asking if I wanted any. I managed to not shout down the phone in glee, and calmly replied that yes, we would indeed like some scallops the following day.

My brother swears that scallops shouldn’t be eaten if they have been cooked - plain and raw is the way forward for him. My mother is all for Scallops on the Half Shell - cooked on a scallop shell with butter, milk and cracker crumbs. In England, it is pretty trendy to serve scallops with the love it or hate it black pudding and served with everything from apple chutney or minted pea puree to risotto or mashed potatoes. This treatment, as far as I am concerned, is sacrilege. Who wants a stinking disc of fried bloody porridge served along something so sublime as a fresh scallop. Some believe simple is best and feel that all this sea candy, as my nephew calls them, requires is a hot pan and a lot of butter.

I tend to fall somewhere between my brother and simplicity, not leaving much room for playing around. Given this, you would think I would not have been kept awake by thoughts of scallop preparation and supper plans for tomorrow’s supper. I was thinking of ceviche but I was also thinking of scallops inspired by something I had recently read about.

In Apples to Oysters, Margaret Webb visits Dark Harbour on Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick to learn about what is considered to be the best dulse in the world. Now, I am no raving fan of dulse. I find that its almost fishy sea taste reminds me of a milder version of some concentrated organic fertilizer I had that was made from fermented fish and seaweed. I don’t enjoy the texture of big pieces of the dried stuff as it rehydrates in my mouth. So, it was a surprise that during our blue potato bonanza, I put a bag of dulse in the basket with the spuds and apples.

This stuff is good for you, chock full of vitamins and nutrients. Dulse kept the inhabitants of Port Royal scurvy free after they were introduced to it by First Nations peoples. It is impossible to overpick because of its regeneration cycle. There is no impact from chemical fertilizers, there is no unwanted byproduct of its production and, other than its picking, there is no labour involved in its growing. Could it be the perfect food? Maybe, if we can solve that sticky problem of taste and texture.

Webb gives brief details of drying the dulse out further and crumbling it to flakes for sprinkling in chowder, frying it to use as bacon in a BLT and microwaving it to make chips.

I was thinking about pan seared scallops with dulse sprinkles. Sprinkles make everything taste better. And, dulse sprinkles make everything taste oceanier.

Pan Seared Sea Scallops with Dulse Sprinkles

1 ounce dulse 

1 pound fresh scallops

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 325º. 

Spread dulse on a baking sheet and bake in oven until colour starts to change, 3-5 minutes. Remove from oven, as it cools it will crisp up. Put dulse in a food processor, if you are a bit lazy like me, and pulse until it is in small flakes. You get some dulse dust this way but I think that works well here. If you aren’t so lazy, and don’t mind the prickliness, rub dulse between hands until it is flaked. Set aside.

Remove the tough ‘catch muscle’ on the side of the scallops. It will pull off quite easily.

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat olive oil and butter over high heat. Depending on the size of the pan you are using, this could be too much and you will need to have less in the pan to get the scallops to sear properly. I just poured about 2/3 of the olive oil and butter into a dish and saved it for finishing the scallops.

Put the scallops in the pan, make sure there are not too many, or they will not sear properly. If your pan is small, sear them in two batches. Turn as soon as the first side is a bit browned. This should take less than a minute of your pan is hot enough. Sear the second side and transfer to a serving plate. Quickly heat any extra oil and butter in the scallop pan and pour over scallops.

Sprinkle with dulse flakes, and a little dust, and serve.