Scallops, bacon, capers, lemon juice, bacon grease, and butter – how can you go wrong with that?
1 pound sea scallops
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 slice bacon
1-2 teaspoons olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons capers, drained
Pat scallops dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat, fry bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and set aside to cool.
Drain off all but a teaspoon of the bacon grease and add olive oil. Heat until the oil begins to ripple, but not smoke. Turn pan to coat evenly. Add scallops and sear about 2 minutes on each side. Don’t overcook. The scallops should have a nice crust on each side while still being translucent in the center. Move scallops to serving plate and keep warm.
Reduce heat to medium and melt the butter in the same pan you cooked the scallops in. Crumble the bacon, add it to the butter, and cook until the butter stops foaming. Add the garlic and continue cooking until the garlic and the butter just begin to brown, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and capers.
Spoon sauce over scallops and serve.
The Verdict: 
This dish keeps your tongue dancing – between the smokiness of the bacon, the salty tang of the lemon and capers, and the sweetness of the scallops. It could be a little overwhelming, but the nutty brown butter makes it all work together nicely.
Due to some bad cooking instruction from the original recipe (that I am still just a little ticked off about), I did not get as good a sear on my scallops as I would have liked. I have adjusted this recipe so that your oil doesn’t burn before the scallops are done (grrrrrrrrr…).
The Nutrition:
Scallops are only 1 point and 30 calories per ounce, butter on the other hand… If you split this recipe between 2 people, each serving is 415 calories and 10 points per serving. Not bad if you serve it over some mixed greens or my rocking beet salad (recipe coming). But if you want to put it over pasta, I’d add some peas and divide it over 4 servings.
ONE YEAR AGO – Badly Bungled Black ‘n’ Bleu Bon Voyage
TWO YEARS AGO – Italian Beef
Scallops, bacon, capers, lemon juice, bacon grease, and butter..you can’t go wrong with that! 😉 This sounds wonderful Dave. I’ve been lucky, the times I’ve seared scallops I’ve somehow managed to get a pretty good brown on them. Like I said “luck”. And somewhere I read to take a knife and make a small criss/cross cut on the top and bottom of them. I don’t know the reason.
I haven’t made scallops this summer, need to get me some. Mike Tipton (Ky Wildcat Fan on the Egg forum) made some this weekend too. You guys are killing me! 😉