Molly Makes Scallops with Corn and Chorizo

His jam?

Oh, what he's jamming to?

(retro 80s music)

This is the September issue of Bon Appétit magazine.

There are a lot of restaurant-driven recipes in here,

but there also happens to be pan-seared scallops

with chorizo and corn which is what we're gonna make today.

You'll probably encounter scallops

that looks like this, but they actually start in a shell,

and there's a lot of other little body parts in there.

There's muscles and roe sacks.

That's all cleaned by the time they arrive

at the grocery store or the seafood department.

They oftentimes will still have a little

tough muscle on the side of them.

So this is super easy, it just peels right off,

but it's a little bit tough, so it's a good idea

to just check and see if they're on there

and peel those off before you start cooking.

I once worked in a restaurant,

and there was a line cook who was like,

I'm obsessed with the muscles.

Save them for me.

So he would just have a plastic bag

of scallop muscles, and he would eat them.

So gross.

An important distinction to make with scallops

is that they come either dry-packed or wet-packed.

These are dry-packed scallops, which means

they haven't been treated in any way

since they were removed from the ocean,

which means that when you go to cook them

and you're looking for that golden brown crust,

a lot of water will come out,

flooding the pan, and they'll steam,

and you won't get that same effect.

So always look for dry-packed scallops.

So these are all cleaned, and now

we're gonna do the prep work involved in the corn ragout.

I have three ears of corn and an upturned bowl

inside a larger bowl to catch the kernels.

I'm just gonna cut them all off the cob here.

Clean corn job.

It's a corn ragout.

All of the kernels are off the cob now,

but there's a lot of corn milk left on these cobs,

so what you can do is use the back,

the dull side of the knife and drag it down

the cob to release all of that milk.

Don't leave any flavor behind.

We are using dried, cured Spanish chorizo.

It looks like this in the package.

Sometimes it comes in a U shape, you'll see it.

It's a Spanish chorizo that is not fresh, but cured.

It doesn't really go bad, and there's a lot of spices

already in this chorizo, so that brings

a lot of flavor to whatever you're cooking.

I'm just dicing this up pretty finely.

We're gonna chop up these scallions.

I listen to just like weird, moody music without any lyrics.

Lyrics are kind of distracting.

Or classical, love some classical.

Such an epic song, epic cooking song.

Really epic anything song.

Bulb scallions, all chip-chopped up.

I have four garlic cloves, which I'm going to slice.

Just thinly sliced.

Alright, one serrano pepper.

These can be kind of spicy.

I like to taste before I throw the whole thing in

and just see how spicy we're really talking.

And wait for it, it can grow.

Not that spicy, so we'll put the whole serrano in.

I have a lime here that I'll squeeze

over the scallops when they're done,

so we'll keep that at the ready.

So the dish comes together pretty quickly

once we head over to the stove,

so important to get all of your mise en place,

which is your prep work done in advance.

Just patting dry these cilantros.

Chop the cilantro, and this'll get folded into the ragout

towards the end so it doesn't wilt and turn brown.

I'm putting a paper towel on these scallops

to soak up any surface moisture

before they hit the pan so that they

get a nice golden brown crust.

Okay, let me get a tray and then we'll go cook the ragout.

Come on over here.

So I have a medium saucepan.

Whoop.

I'm gonna heat one Tablespoon of oil over medium heat here.

So this saucepan is where we're gonna build

this little corn buttermilk chorizo ragout.

Okay, party people, over here.

You're vibing?

[Cameraman] Oh my god, I love them!

[Molly] You love them?

[Cameraman] I was just gonna say that!

How friggin' dorky do I seem now?

(Molly laughing) TimeCop1983?

Oh man, I hope for your sake that gets edited out,

but I feel like it's not going to.

You just made me look

real bad, Molly. TimeCop (laughs)

[Cameraman] No joke I was just playing them in the studio.

That's so funny. You were?

You guys are both such dorks.

I think it's like some dude who like,

maybe he's older now, but it's like somebody

who just does it on their own, like in their apartment

in like, Copenhagen or whatever, you know?

It's so good.

Wow.

Alright, back to the cooking.

Hot oil, we're adding chorizo.

That basically just made my day.

And I'm just looking to render out some of the fat

that's in this chorizo, and leave it nice and crispy.

So you'll see, it immediately turns

this beautiful rust color, and that's

from all the paprika in the chorizo.

And what's cool about this recipe is

that we're gonna save all of that red oil,

and we're gonna use it for searing our scallops.

Smells fab.

You don't wanna burn the chorizo, so as soon as

you see it start to really smoke, then you know

it's time.

We're looking crispy McCrisperson,

so we're going to strain off that oil.

Leave the chorizo behind, and we'll use that later on.

I'm gonna add one more Tablespoon of olive oil,

and all of the aromatics.

Season that with a little bit of salt,

and just cook this for a couple of minutes

until they begin to soften.

This looks nice and softened.

It smells good.

Time to add the corn.

I'll cook this for another five to seven minutes.

Okay, let's take a little taste, see how our corn's doing.

This is delicious, peak-season corn.

You guys are in for a real treat today.

I feel like this corn is in a good place,

and the next part of this ragout

is adding buttermilk, which is just gonna give

a creamy sauce to bind it all together;

however, if you add buttermilk

to something that's this hot, it will split,

and it will look like curdled milk,

so I'm gonna turn this off the heat

and let it cool for about five minutes.

It's time to cook the scallops.

Important to season them right before you cook

because if you do it in advance, they'll draw out moisture.

Theme of this video is dry scallops, golden brown crust.

Little bit of olive oil.

So this is where the reserved

bright red chorizo oil comes into play.

We're gonna add it to the olive oil

and cook the scallops in that.

I think people are really intimidated

by cooking scallops, but the most important thing

is that your oil be super, super hot.

See the smoke billowing?

I don't want it to get too much hotter than that,

so I'm gonna go in with the scallops, seasoned side down.

This is the hard part, but we're not going

to move them until they naturally release from the pan.

The side of the scallop that has

the largest surface area is the side that I'm gonna sear

because it's gonna give us the most crust.

(scallops sizzling)

This looks nice.

I'm gonna flip.

Mmm.

Okay, then the final moment here,

and this happens quickly because scallops

can overcook in an instant, so once you have established

a good crust, you don't wanna cook them

that much longer on the second side.

I'm actually gonna turn the heat off

and add in a couple Tablespoons of butter to the skillet,

and I'm just gonna baste them.

Giving it some love, some buttery love.

Gonna remove them so that they don't overcook.

Drizzle some of these yummy pan juices over

so that they can kinda sit and mingle in it.

I'm gonna set these aside, and then we'll finish

our corn ragout with buttermilk and cilantro.

So it's cool enough that I can

now add one cup of buttermilk.

It's sort of like a light, broth-y, almost chowder-y ragout.

And then the chopped cilantro.

We'll taste them just for seasoning.

Obviously I put more.

It's really delicious.

So, back we go.

Little bit of lime just to squeeze

over these scallops because there's a lot

of butter and fat going on right now,

so this'll help break that up.

And then, into the famous bowl

goes the ragout.

Two.

This guys beautiful.

Three.

A lime wedge for serving.

I mean, is that not the spitting image?

Chris?

What's up? Don't hate me.

Why?

Do you wanna come over and taste,

but you have to bring your headphones

and we're gonna taste while we listen.

Same artist?

Oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah.

Alright here. What's it called again?

TimeCop all day?

TimeCop all day.

No, TimeCop1983.

Come on.

So this is seared scallops with a chorizo-corn--

You feeling that?

Bass is about to drop in I'm feeling it,

it's building.

It's a slow build, okay.

Chorizo corn buttermilk ragout.

Chorizo corn buttermilk ragout?

I feel like buttermilk is like my crutch these days.

Yeah, you put it in your pasta too, right?

Yeah.

Good for you.

Can I taste this first?

Are you tasting?

Yeah I'm tasting,

hell yeah I'm tasting. Just waiting for the music

to really like, for the beat to drop in.

Little green chile in there?

Serrano, it wasn't a very spicy one.

No, it wasn't.

See, how much more fun is it?

So much more fun.

I wish they could hear it too.

You've totally converted me (laughs)

I was such a hater at the beginning of this episode.

Guys, I'm sorry you're not in our headphones right now.

You're really missing out.

Really good.

Ben approves.

Cool, delicious.

Should I leave these with you?

You may, you may go.

Cool, alright, later.

Bring out your inner cop, put on TimeCop,

buy some scallops, go to the farmer's market

and get some corn 'cause it's peak right now,

and put this on the table for dinner tonight.

Yes?

Are you with me?

[Cameraman] I am with you.

Molly, I have a pot of rice on.

Oh. And if there's any

of that leftover, I'm putting that on the rice.

And all the juices! Oh yeah.

We have all of the buttery, limey juices.

We have lunch lined up.