This is a Manx recipe, and Manx recipes
have not gone down too well in the past (#390
Isle of Man Herring Pie) stands out
as particularly bad, but this one sounded pretty promising. Fish and cheese
don’t always work well together, but there are those outstanding exceptions such
as cod or lobster with mornay sauce, so there’s hope.
This recipe comes from Suzanne Woolley’s
book My Grandmother’s Cookery Book, 50
Manx Recipes, and according to her, scallops are called tanrogen, which actually was ‘the name
given to the scallop shell when it was filled with cod oil to provide a lamp
for the fishermen. A rush which quickly soaked up the oil, was used for the
wick’. I absolutely love happening upon these little forgotten glimpses of past
lives. I might even give this it a go, though I might use a different oil…
In Ms Woolley’s grandmother’s day scallops
were obviously ten a penny as this recipe requires 18 scallops for six people.
As I couldn’t get a remortgage, I just bought enough scallops for a couple of
people and adjusted the amounts accordingly.
A smiling scallop with its many tiny black eyes (from divernet.com)
When you go to the fishmonger to collect
your eighteen scallops, first check
that have been sustainably caught (if they have not, go to another fishmongers),
then buy six scallop shells. Make sure you get the concave sides to the shells
and not the flat sides.
Trim away any untidy parts to the scallops
and remove the corals, setting them to one side. Slice each scallop in half so
that there are 36 discs in all.
Next, add to a wide pan a quarter of a pint
of fish stock, a quartered onion, a bay leaf and some salt and
pepper. Bring to a simmer, add the
scallops and allow to tick away very gently for five minutes, then add the
corals and simmer for a further five minutes.
Towards the end of the cooking time, make a
sauce by melting an ounce of butter
in a saucepan and stirring in an ounce of flour
to make a roux. Cook for a couple of minutes stirring occasionally. Strain away
the scallop cooking liquor and beat it into the roux. Keep the scallops warm. Make
the sauce a little less thick by adding a little milk. Simmer for ten minutes and then add an ounce of grated Cheddar cheese and a couple of
tablespoons of double cream. Check
the seasoning, adding more cream if you like.
Arrange six halves of scallop into each
scallop shell along with three corals and pour the sauce over each one.
Sprinkle each with a little more grated Cheddar
and brown very well under the grill.
Jane suggests piping the edges of the
shells with mashed potato or lining the shells with pastry and baking them
beforehand. I did neither and simply ate mine with crusty bread.
#421 Scallops
with Cheese Sauce. At last, a Manx recipe I liked! It had to happen at some
point, I suppose. It worked just as well as I thought it would; lovely
tender-sweet scallops in a sharp and creamy sauce. The only thing I could think of to
improve it would be to add some breadcrumbs fried in butter to the cheese
before grilling to add some texture. I made the sauce a little too thin, but that's easily remedied 8/10.
