Scallop Pasta and La Fin du Monde

I had initially planned to cook some kind of pasta with tomatoes, because my tomato plants are finally starting to come on strong (particularly the cherry tomatoes), but I had to stop by the store on the way home and found some attractively priced scallops, so the menu changed. The scallops were frozen, but unless you meet the boat at the dock (and it’s only been out for one day), chances are that most of the seafood you buy has been frozen at some point, so I generally don’t have a problem with frozen seafood. These were large New England scallops at a good price, so I decided I needed to do something with them. I picked up some mushrooms as well, headed home, and tried to figure out exactly what I was going to cook. Scallops and mushrooms are a good combo and don’t really need much else. I was still thinking about using some of the tomatoes, but I was worried it would make for a dish that was too busy. I settled on sautéing the mushrooms in olive oil with garlic, then searing the scallops in a hot pan and serving it all with pasta.

I put the scallops in cold water to thaw, started to prep the mushrooms, and put water on for the pasta. Mushrooms give off a lot of liquid when they cook, and I generally try to cook them in batches to help reduce the amount of liquid in the pan (which can otherwise turn sautéing into stewing). You don’t necessarily need to remove each batch, but if you only throw in a handful at a time and then brown them before throwing in more, it keeps the liquid from building up too much. I cooked the mushrooms until they were firm and browned, then added the garlic. As the pan got dry, I deglazed it all with amontillado. I love sherry and generally keep fino and amontillado on hand. Amontillado is the more full bodied and flavored of the two and is a great match with mushrooms. Fino would do fine in a pinch, but the amontillado is nuttier and works better.

I pulled the mushrooms out of the pan, added a little more olive oil, and put the scallops in to sear (making sure that I patted then dry first). Scallops cook very quickly and get tough if overcooked, so I let them sit for about a minute and a half, and then flipped them. I gave them about another minute on the second side and pulled them out to rest. I added the mushrooms back to the pan, added the drained pasta (which was penne), some parsley and tossed it all together. The mix was a little dry so I added some of the pasta cooking water in order to add some silkiness to the dish. I put the scallops back, turned the heat off and let it sit for about 30 seconds before plating it. In Italy you don’t add cheese to pasta with fish in it, but I was in the US, so I felt no compunction to skip the cheese, although I’m sure there was a loud groan somewhere from the pasta police.

A few days before, I had picked up a Unibroue La Fin de Monde, which is Belgian style Golden Ale, because it was on sale. Unibroue is a Canadian brewery that brews some of the best Belgian-style beers outside of Belgium. I think it’s fair to say that many of their beers are as good as or better than some authentic Belgian beers. According to their website, this is their beast selling beer and it’s no wonder. It clocks in at 9% alcohol, but is wonderfully balanced. The aroma is full of orange, lemon, spice and malt undertones. On the palate it’s full bodied but finishes fairly dry. There’s a wonderful combination of fruit, malt and spice to the flavor. Because it’s so highly carbonated, it’s very lively on the palate which helps to mask its high alcohol content.

Scallops are fairly rich and with the added mushrooms, you need something that has a fair amount of body and flavor to stand up to it. La Fin du Monde was an excellent choice. It was big enough and complex enough to stand up but because of its carbonation and dryness, it also helped to cut through the rich flavors of the dish. The scallops had a buttery quality to them and the citrus notes of the beer contrasted beautifully with that. I have a tendency to overlook a lot of beers at the supermarket because they’re part of the regular inventory and I’m normally looking for something new that I haven’t tried. A lot of these beers are great beers, but being in Portland, I’m spoiled by the selection. So I tend to overlook some classics, like La Fin du Monde, Trois Pistole (which is my favorite of Unibroue’s beers), and the various beers from Chimay, because they’re so readily available and I’m searching for something new and different. Luckily, I was smart enough to give this beer a second look this time and it reminds me of how many “standards” I overlook on a regular basis. Maybe it’s time to go get one of those bottles of Chimay…