I made Coquilles St. Jacques à la Parisienne as a little appetizer before we took the Man out for his birthday - and in true Julia fashion they were delicious...
...first you boil some herbs and green onions in white wine...
...I realize you can't see that very well with it boiling and the steam and all - there's bay leaf, onions, salt and pepper in there with the dry white wine...
...this is a can of Veggi-Scallops that I brought all the way back from the SDA store in NC - and some cute little scallop dishes that I got from ebay - Scout wanted to use some actual shells that he had picked up on the beach - but I wasn't sure that was safe - I didn't want them to explode in the oven...
...hmmmn - I expected the scallops to be round - and oh - I forgot to take a picture of the mushrooms - they're in there already...
...and for the cream - I picked up this plain soy creamer the last time we were in Grand Forks - I usually just use soy milk thickened with some powdered soy milk - but we'll use this 'cream' today...
...then the sauce - first you make a roux with some flour and Earth Balance and cook that for a couple of minutes...
..then you're supposed to add the strained cooking liquid - but I got a little out of order and added the soy milk first...
...and then the 'cream'...
...salt and pepper and flax seed goo (substitute for the eggs)...and apparently I didn't get a picture of the flax seed goo - but there's a pretty good description of it here...
...and then the stock - I'm not sure it made any difference and the sauce looked pretty smooth...
...then you take the 'scallops' and mushrooms out of the strainer...
...and cut the 'scallops' cross-wise into 1/8 inch pieces...
...then you strain the sauce...
...ha! not as smooth as I had thought - and the pepper gets strained out as well...
...Ahhhh! Perfectly smooth sauce parisienne...
...add the mushrooms and 'scallops' back to the sauce...
...butter your shells with Earth Balance...
...then spoon 'scallops' mushrooms and sauce onto them...
...Sprinkle with cheese (I used Daiya) and dot with Earth Balance - I realize you can't tell any difference between the Daiya and the Earth Balance but there is Earth Balance on top...
...Run under a broiler for a few minutes...
...until they're all nicely browned...
...and hot and bubbly...
...then put them on a little plate - with one of those cute little forks that you hardly ever have the opportunity to use...
...and enjoy - these were superb - delicately flavored and just a perfect little amuse bouche before we headed to the restaurant for the birthday dinner...
Substitutions:
Cedar Lake Vegi Scallops for scallops
Soy Milk for milk
Soy creamer for cream
Earth Balance for Butter
Daiya mozzarella for the cheese
Flax Seed Goo for eggs
Recipe here: Mastering the Art of French Cooking
p. 216-218
Wow beautifully presented too. As I can't seem to locate those lovely dishes, I have often wondered whether I should pick scallop shells from the beach and use to cook in. Still thinking about it, but your teaser here looks really flavourful.
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