Fireworks on your palate! No other way to describe this mixture of freshly baked scallops with spicy chorizo, removed from the oven and topped with chilled thai style relish that was salty, sweet and a little spicy. I LOVED this concoction more than the classic bacon or chorizo and cheese topped shellfish. It isn’t an original idea. I spied a similar treatment in a “Delicious” magazine from early 2013. The Australian magazine featured the unusual thai bites from the Longrain Bar in Sydney. This is my version with in-house made chorizo and a cobbled together thai sauce with ingredients found in the kitchen.
I pan fried some chorizo (removed from it’s casing — note our chorizo has a lot less FAT than commercially made versions) and topped some scallops on a half shell and stuck this into a hot oven. Once the scallops are just cooked, remove from the oven.
Earlier, I had made a sauce from brown sugar, water, lots and lots of lime (dayap) juice (not lemons or kalamansi), thai fish sauce, slivered red onions, toamtoes, sliced chilies and at the last minute, chopped mint and coriander leaves. Place this relish over the hot scallops and pork and eat immediately. Your palate is treated to warm and cold, sweet and sour, salty and spicy all in one go. Really, really nice. Folks in our office seemed to prefer another cheese and chorizo version we made alongside this one, but this one was by far my favorite… so much more complex, so many more layers of flavor, and while rich, the sourness of the lime cut that in just the right way. Some slivered ginger and perhaps some lemongrass would have added a few more flavor notes.
Just look at the photos closely. Bits of chorizo oil floating on a generous amount of lime juice. Slivered tomatoes, onions and herbs. Plus pork and shellfish. Seriously delicious!
10 Responses
wow, the recipe looks interesting. your scallops (the hard-shelled kind) are what are common in cebu, i think. around panay, they have the thinner-shelled variety (capiz). i’ve also seen those with purplish shells. all different, all good!
i saw huge, frozen NZ scallops at S&R the other day and am wondering if they’re as sweet and succulent as the small, native ones.
“Just look at the photos closely. Bits of chorizo oil floating on a generous amount of lime juice. Slivered tomatoes, onions and herbs. Plus pork and shellfish. Seriously delicious!” — The torture and agony of staring at food porn at lunch time.. and then realizing that your choices for lunch are limited to crummy cafeteria food. T_T
I just really hope someone from NASA or some other science/technology institution is working on a food replicator. :D
oh my! Im so hungry! this Thai-style scallops and chorizo really looks delicious!
What do they call them in Filipino? The tiny ones are called bay scallops here but the French, as is often the case with food, has the best sounding name for it, coquille Saint-Jacques.
Other than as one of the two main decorative devices of the Rococo style, the scallop shell is prominently featured in Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus although one has to admit, the Uffizi visitors’ focus when looking at this painting hardly ever descends and lingers there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_%28Botticelli%29
This looks incredible MM. Much more interesting than the versions topped with cheese.
i have seen those with their shell in manila, but often without it. i want to try removing them from their shell, slicing them, putting them back in their shell before placing the relish all over them. something about dayap, it cannot be substituted with kalamansi or lemon – if it’s a thai experience you’re after.
Time to visit my suki at the Farmers’ Market in Cubao who sells really fresh and wonderful scallops.. I wonder though, if scallops also get affected by red tide..
Can’t seem to find good dayap. The ones I got from the supermarket hardly yielded a teaspoon of juice… Juice koh, :-) they’re so expensive pa naman…
Happy Birthday MM! You know I won’t ever forget :)
Hahaha myra, happy birthday to you too… :)
Looks amazing, although I’m also inclined towards baked shellfish with cheese.