HOWARD JOHNSON'S COQUILLES SAINT JACQUES

SOURCE: CRAIG CLAIBORNE. CRAIG CLAIBORNE’S MEMORABLE MEALS: MENUS, MEMORIES, AND RECIPES FROM 20 YEARS OF ENTERTAINING.

New York Times food columnist Craig Claiborne met Howard Johnson, Sr. through Chef Pierre Franey, whom the latter lured from Manhattan’s Le Pavillon and employed into his enterprise as Vice-President of Research and Development. The former restaurant magnate, whose name has been irrevocably tied to middle-class American food, is actually a gourmand himself! One evening, when the Johnsons were en route to visit for dinner, Craig caused a mishap by accidentally spilling an excess of cayenne pepper into the velouté sauce of the scallops. With the fish market closed and the lack of time to start all over, Craig and Pierre resorted to masking the crisis with bottled clam juice, and their guests ate the shellfish with much gusto and no suspicion of its sauce getting tainted with the essence of another mollusk. That scallop dinner with Howard Johnson proved a memorable lesson to Craig that he included its actual recipe in his autobiographical memoir, A Feast Made for Laughter. Sans the bottled clam juice, of course!

Ingredients

1 pound/450 grams fresh OR frozen sea scallops

1 sprig flat-leaf parsley, preferably picked fresh on the same day for best results

1 sprig thyme, preferably picked fresh on the same day for best results, OR 1/2 teaspoon/0.5 grams dried thyme

1 bay leaf

8 white peppercorns

6 tablespoons/90 mL cold water

6 tablespoons/90 mL dry white wine

Salt to taste

5 tablespoons/70 grams unsalted butter

2 tablespoons/16 grams all-purpose flour

1 large yolk

1/2 teaspoon/3 mL freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon/0.2 grams cayenne pepper

1/4 cup/23 grams freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Specific Equipment

2 small saucepans

Small strainer

Small bowl

Wire whisk

Spoon

4 to 6 small ramekins or large scallop shells OR 8 to12 small scallop shells

Baking tray

Serves 4 to 6

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C.

2. Combine the scallops, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, water, and white wine in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Season with salt, if using fresh scallops. Reduce the heat to simmer and poach the scallops for 2 minutes. Pick up the scallops with a small strainer, reserving the poaching liquid in the saucepan. Transfer the scallops to a small bowl and set aside to cool slightly. Cut the scallops into thin slices.

3. Melt the butter in another small saucepan over medium heat and stir in the flour with a wire whisk until well-blended. Pour in the poaching liquid through the small strainer and continue whisking vigorously.

4. Remove the saucepan from heat and beat in the egg yolk, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper until the sauce has cooled slightly.

5. Spoon a little of the sauce into the ramekins or scallop shells. Top the sauce with equal portions of the scallops. Cover the scallops with the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

6. Bake for 5 to 10 minutes or until the sauce has bubbled and the cheese has turned golden brown. Remove from heat and transfer the baked scallops in equal portions on individual serving plates.