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side view of pan seared scallops served on pea puree drizzled with beurre blanc

Pan-Seared Scallops Recipe with Pea Puree, Bacon & Vanilla Beurre Blanc

Learn how to make Pan Seared Scallops with a perfectly golden-brown crust and serve them with pea puree and a divine French Vanilla Beurre Blanc Butter Sauce! An easy pan-seared scallops recipe that is elegant yet simple to make at home. 

Course Appetizer, entree, main
Cuisine American, French
Keyword pan seared scallops, pea puree recipe, scallops with pea puree
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 2 people
Calories 350 kcal
Author Kiki Johnson

Ingredients

  • 4 strips bacon
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 shallot minced
  • 1 1/3 cups frozen peas 400 g
  • 2 pinches salt
  • 1 cup milk 200 ml
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg freshly grated

Beurre blanc:

  • ½ shallot minced
  • 2 peppercorns
  • 1/2 vanilla bean scraped
  • 50 ml dessert wine or ice wine
  • 1/4 cup cold butter 70 g
  • salt
  • 8 scallops marinated in ice wine overnight

Instructions

  1. Fry the bacon on medium heat until crispy. Remove from the pan and transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper towels. Reserve the fat. Chop the bacon once cooled or pulse into bacon bits using a food processor.

For the pea puree

  1. Heat oil in a medium-sized pan on medium heat and sautee the diced shallots until translucent but do not brown them. Add peas, salt, milk, and nutmeg and let simmer for 8 minutes. Strain and reserve the milk. Add peas to a high container and add a splash of the pea milk, then puree with an immersion blender, adding more pea milk until you have reached the desired texture.

For the Beurre Blanc:

  1. Add diced shallots, pepper, freshly scraped out vanilla paste and ice wine to a small pot and let simmer until reduced to about 2 tbsps. Strain and press on the shallots in the sieve to get out as much liquid as possible. Return the liquid to the pan, reduce heat and add cold butter bit by bit while stirring with a whisk. Do not heat the sauce too much at this point. You can quickly reheat before serving.

For the scallops:

  1. To remove the tendons from the scallops, simply peel away the small, rough-textured crescent-shaped tendon and discard. Pat the outside of the scallops dry with a paper towel. Next, sprinkle the scallops with sea salt. Next grab a cast-iron skillet, preferably cast-iron. Heat up the skillet until it’s really hot, and add 2 tbsps of your reserved bacon fat.

  2. Drop in your scallops one by one clockwise, making sure to give them enough space in the pan so they’re not touching.
  3. Sear the scallops for about 1 minute on the first side, then flip and add a small pat of bacon fat to the pan while the other side finishes cooking, for another minute. Flip them clockwise starting with the one you put in first.
  4. I cook my scallops for 2 minutes total but mine were rather small. For bigger scallops, up the time to 1,5 minutes per side or even up to 2.
  5. Take them out of the pan immediately and serve on a bed of pea puree. Sprinkle with bacon bits and a drizzle of Beurre Blanc.

Recipe Notes

The pan-seared scallops will last in the fridge for 2 days max but I recommend you only make as much as you can eat in one sitting. When they’re fresh, they are best. Refrigerated, they should still have a sweet ocean smell, and when they start to spoil they will take on a stinky fish smell.