We went to Cornwall for the first time last summer, to Penzance, and ate at Argoe in Newlyn. The scallops that night were the best I have had anywhere, and I have thought about them more or less constantly since. So when the Gozney arrived, the first thing we wanted to do was try to recreate them.
Angus Powell, now head chef at Argoe, has since posted the method himself, cooked in a bucket on the beach, which tells you how little it needs. There is no pan of butter, no sauce, and no technique to speak of. You set the scallops on the coals in their own shells, cover them, and let the fire do the work.
What makes it worth doing is what the shell does. It holds the scallop just above the heat and catches the liquor as it releases, so the scallop poaches in its own juices while the underside picks up the smoke. What comes out is sweeter and rounder than anything a pan will give you, and the char on the shell rim is the smell of the whole thing.
The scallops matter more than the method. Ours were XL Orkney scallops from Henderson to Home Seafood, hand-sized in the shell, and four of them were dinner for the three of us. If you are cooking small scallops, this is the wrong recipe, because they will overcook before the shell has done anything interesting.
We eat them straight from the tray, with bread for the liquor at the bottom of the shell and a glass of cold rosé. Nothing else on the table. I would do this every week if the fish came this good every week.
The shells are reusable. Wash them and keep them, and you can try cook shucked scallops the same way next time, but we usually only use the ones in the shell.
Scallops Cooked in Their Shells, Straight on the Embers
Equipment
- A woodfired oven, a barbecue, or an open fire with a bed of hot embers
- A metal pan or tray large enough to sit over the shells
Ingredients
- scallops in the half shell, one or two per person
- olive oil
- flaky Cornish sea salt
Instructions
- Burn your fire down until you have a bed of embers glowing under a layer of white ash. You want steady heat, not flames.
- Season each scallop in its shell with a pinch of salt and a small pour of olive oil.
- Set the shells directly onto the embers, flat and level so the liquor stays in. They will hiss and settle.
- Now put a pan upside down over the top of them.
- Cook time all depends on the size of your scallops and the heat of your fire. Lift the pan to check. The shell will start to get a bit burnt colored.
- Pull them when the flesh has turned from translucent to opaque and the liquor around the base is bubbling.
- Take them off with tongs and bring the tray straight to the table. The shells are part of it.
Method as cooked at Argoe, Newlyn. Scallops from Henderson to Home, gifted. Salt from Cornish Sea Salt Co, gifted. Cooked in a Gozney Dome Gen 2.