Coquilles Saint-Jacques

Who-Said-What?? Is the reaction I get when I tell people I made Coquilles Saint-Jacques the other day.   It's another recipe from my mother-in-law's "attic" - well, she didn't really have them in the attic. She made this quite often judging by the stains and marks on the paper. I do remember she made it for my husband and me at least once. On one of the final clean-up days before selling the house, the dishes she used for "that French dish" appeared. So, I grabbed them. Since I had them, as with the bean pot, I had to made the recipe.

I uploaded the recipe to Tastebook. I like the ingredients, but made a few tweaks in the method as I went along. First, as on "About French Food", I sautéd the scallops and spices together. Then, in the same sauté pan, sautéd the mushrooms. So as not to have a mountain of pots to wash at the end, wiped out the pan to make the cream sauce, then melted the butter to combine with the bread crumbs. After each step, I built individual portions in the dishes until the final breadcrumb layer. Then broiled (gratinéed) before serving. In the end, a very tasty dish met us at the table. We decided that the mushrooms didn't add all that much to the overall flavor. Hmm ... , what's up with that? Otherwise - YUM!!!

Now, reading Julia Child, I see she has two slightly different recipes for Coquille St. Jacques. The recipe "Á la Provençale", sautés the scallops with herbs and onions and seems to have no mushrooms, but has cheese over the top vice bread crumbs. I think a little tweaking will be in order.

It is 2013

Ok, it has been a while since we worked on this project. I now have additional incentive to get back to these recipe comments, having recently acquired a large inventory of recipe cards and cookbooks from my mother-in-law, Lorraine. In the past couple of weeks I have made a couple of her recipes. I neglected to photograph them. I think I will be re-creating her Boston Baked Bean recipe as it was quite the hit. After a little research based on a clipping of her recipe I learned that the origin of the recipe is from a restaurant in Boston, Durgin Park. I have actually been to this restaurant years ago. My father, having discovered the place on his work trips to Boston, recommended giving it a try one time when I was out there. I do believe I sampled their baked beans. If you go to the recipes section of their website, you can download their original recipe.

My adventure with Boston Baked Beans wouldn't have happened had I not picked up the bean pot from my in-laws basement. I grabbed it saying to myself - well the grandkids like baked beans, and I had never really tackled them, and there's this recipe for them in the pile  ... so ... there I was. The first time I made it strictly according to the recipe. Well, as strictly as I can, I was surprised that our local Harris Teeter carried salt pork. Salt Pork is really salty. There seemed to be an large amount of salt in the recipe. I confess that I did slightly reduce the amount of salt this first time. Yet, it ended up not seeming too salty over all. The overall family rating was 2 thumbs up, with one "I think it needs ketchup". I had hoped they would taste more smokey to emulate a batch of baked beans I had at a party some years back. This wasn't quite get that.

Tried the second batch with ketchup and barbecue sauce and, after some reading, liquid smoke. While the vote was still 2 thumbs up, some felt the ketchup an unnecessary ingredient. Most liked the smokiness the liquid smoke brought to the party. Then, while watching Martha Stewart on TV one day, she added tomatoes to her Boston Baked Beans. I'm wondering if the addition of tomatoes might satisfy the tomato urge without bring the sugar that ketchup brings. Stay tuned for more developments.