Sea Scallops Recipe

Divya Gugnani: World famous chef James Beard award-winner and successful restaurateur, Daniel Boulud has earned himself a name synonymous with quality. I’m Divya Gugnani here in New York City at its flagship restaurant Daniel. So, let’s go behind the burner and meet the chef to learn his secrets on French fare.

So, I’m here with Chef Daniel Boulud. Daniel, what are you making for us?

Daniel Boulud: Well, I’m preparing for your Sea Scallops sealed with crust of Japanese rice flake and on a little casserole of beans. And I have a wonderful -- look at these.

Divya Gugnani: Cranberry beans.

Daniel Boulud: Crushed cranberry beans; yellow wax beans, haricot vert, some onions, some tomatoes, some garlic; very simple, very light, very Provencal.

So, the first thing is we season the scallops. Those are beautiful little sea scallop from Maine. And then I’m putting a little bit of egg wash and we crust on one side only. A little bit of egg wash now.

Divya Gugnani: And that’s because you want to hold the rice paper flakes on there.

Daniel Boulud: Yes and then I’m putting that on the rice paper flakes and that give you a nice crust. You want to do one?

Divya Gugnani: I’ll do one.

Daniel Boulud: I have all the beans are already prepared which would be cooked and so, we have the cranberry beans, we have the yellow wax bean, the haricot verts and a little bit of onion. What’s important is that you cut them about an inch long, so they go together very well with the cranberry beans. If you can’t get any fresh cranberry beans, you can get some dry. We soak them and they work wonderfully also.

Divya Gugnani: So, use dry if you do not have the fresh.

Daniel Boulud: Yes, absolutely. So here, I’m putting a little bit of olive oil. We’re going to start to cook the scallop the right side.

Divya Gugnani: Right.

Daniel Boulud: It doesn’t have to be too hot. It’s going to take just the time it takes. Add olive oil, put some onion. So, you let the onion sweat. Add garlic, be careful and we let that sweat without getting any color to it.

So, I made basil pesto but the best to make a pesto is you get the fresh basil. You get plenty of it. You boil water and throw the basil in it. Take the basil out for just 10 seconds and then drain it. Put it in the blender with some olive oil, some garlic, some pine nuts, a little bit of parmesan if you like parmesan. So now, the onions are sweating. It’s good to finish the cooking of the beans inside the onion as well. So, you put a little bit of beans there, the white beans.

Divya Gugnani: And you blanched these a little bit, have you?

Daniel Boulud: Of course. The cranberry beans, you want them to be cooked. What’s very important with the yellow wax bean is that it’s totally cooked. I’ll add a little chicken stock here. I’m putting a good tablespoon of pesto inside here. So now, everything has been almost cooked. I’m turning this like this. Now they’re getting crispy.

Divya Gugnani: They have golden brown color.

Daniel Boulud: Yes, absolutely. That’s important. So, I’m putting now a little diced tomato. The tomato has been peeled, seeded and chopped into small dice. And then we’re going to put also a little bit of lemon segment inside here, just a touch like that like that. A little bit more salt and a little more olive oil into it.

Okay, we’re ready now to plate. Of course you can serve that in a large dish. It depends if it’s family style or not but here at the restaurant, this dish of course -- I’ve made it very simple for you. This is the simplified version of what we do here at Daniel.

Divya Gugnani: So chef, what do you do if you don’t have a ring mold at home?

Daniel Boulud: It doesn’t matter. You put it in a nice dish to look nice and all that. I just wanted to make sure that I’m going to make it pretty for you.

Divya Gugnani: You can use a cup or something like that?

Daniel Boulud: Exactly.

Divya Gugnani: And place it on a cup.

Daniel Boulud: So here, we have the sea scallops. I’m putting the pesto broth and then I’ll pour that right around like that.

Divya Gugnani: Beautiful colors. It makes me feel like we’re about to taste spring.

Daniel Boulud: And then we put a couple of leaves of basil. That’s how simple it is. Okay, are we going to have a taste?

Divya Gugnani: We are. I’m ready to taste your beautiful dish. I’m going to dig it.

Daniel Boulud: Yes. You see the importance is done one side is crusty, the other one is kind of very moist.

Divya Gugnani: Yes.

Daniel Boulud: It has this layer of flavor of the green, the scallop itself with just kind of sweet and briny and a great cooperation of green with the pesto.

Divya Gugnani: A little bit of crunch from the beans, these beans up the texture a little bit.

Daniel Boulud: Absolutely and a little anise from the basil. Well, I have a little bit of champagnisé. Cheers! Bon appetit!

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