Day 140 - Is That Scallops or Scollops, Sir?

i do some work you know!
charlotte!
helen!

We are coming to the end of the shooting run and today we polished off the Food & Wine Special. Over the year, I have cooked with some great chefs - Atul from Benares and Christophe from Robouchon in Monaco to name but two .. and we have have filmed extra recipes for this show ... also we've done cheese shops and EVEN a feature on Hungarian wine!

So today we wrapped it all round a cooking feature with the Exec Chef at The Four Seasons, London - Bernhard Mayer - who spent 4 hours cooking me scallops. Not just "scallops" but the most delicious ever!

On hand, Charlotte Allen - PR of hotel - and our own Helen - producer and police ... person ...

All went well BUT I am exhausted ... and it's a VERY early start tomorrow .... more filming ... but with golf-clubs! Yipppeeeee!

"Scallops are a popular type of shellfish in both Eastern and Western cooking. They are characterised by having two types of meat in one shell: the adductor muscle, called "scallop" which is white and meaty, the roe, called "coral", which is red or white and soft.
In western cuisine, scallops are commonly sautéed in butter, or else breaded and deep fried. Scallops are commonly paired with light semi-dry white wines. Generally speaking in the U.S., when a scallop is prepared, only the adductor muscle is used; the other parts of the scallop surrounding the muscle are ordinarily discarded. Sometimes markets in the U.S. sell scallops already prepared in the shell, with only the adductor muscle intact. Outside the U.S., the scallop is often sold whole. Scallops that are without any additives are called "dry packed" while scallops that are treated with sodium tripolyphosphate (STP) are called "wet packed". STP causes the scallops to absorb moisture prior to the freezing process, thereby getting a better price per unit of weight. The freezing process takes about 2 days.
In continental cuisine, scallops are often prepared in the form of a quiche or cooked and then set into a savory custard. In Japanese cuisine, scallops may be served in soup or prepared as sashimi or sushi. Dried scallop is known in Oriental cuisine as conpoy.
In a sushi bar, hotategai (帆立貝, 海扇) is the traditional scallop on rice, and while kaibashira (貝柱) may be called scallops, it is actually the adductor muscle of any kind of shellfish, e.g. mussels, oysters, or clams.
Scallops have lent their name to the culinary term scalloped, which originally referred to seafood creamed and served hot in the shell (Rombauer 1964). Today it means a creamed casserole dish such as scalloped potatoes, which contains no seafood at all.
Potato scallops are also a popular 'chip shop' dish in middle England. A thick potato slice is covered in batter and deep fried. " Now you know ....

And it IS "scollops" not "scallops" ... so I am told ...

Song of the Day: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off - Harry Connick Jnr

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