Bourbon Marinated Scallops with Crumbled Bacon

Let me start off by saying I’m a little biased.

I’m an east coast guy. More specifically, I’m a New Englander born and bred. Seafood, even tho my palate was hardly refined growing up, is in my blood. As I’ve grown older, I’ve started to like more and more variety in my diet, and that has branched into seafood as well as everything else. One of my favorite seafood restaurants is back in Kittery, Maine: Bob’s Clam Hut. The fried seafood there is melt in your mouth good, I think one of the best on the coast, which in New England is really saying something.

The fried scallops are my always go-to order, although we’ve taken to going there twice on each trip home, just so we can try something different the second time (lobster roll, the Lillian, what have you). They are a mix of sweet and milky, with a soft but crispy fried coating that will hold the tartar or cocktail sauce just as much as the moist scallop doesn’t need it.

I’ve had scallops both baked and fried out here in the Pacific Northwest and I’ve never found one worth it.

The breading isn’t quite right, the scallops aren’t flavored quite right, or they’re dry and over done.

I’d actually given up on finding a scallop worth it on this coast.

But then, one week while shopping at Taylor Shellfish, we thought about finally getting some shucked oysters. Oyster Bill, jovial soul that he is, pointed out that they were out, but they still had a thing of scallops. Since part of this blog is all about us breaking through our roadblocks in the food world, I thought what the hell, lets go for it. 

But it was up to me to find a recipe. And to cook it.

And thus began…

The Tale of Two Recipes

Obviously, bacon and scallops go well together. Bacon wrapped scallops are a standby of wedding receptions and other events. So off I go in search of a recipe. That’s what google is for.

Hey, we like bourbon too, so how about bourbon bacon scallops recipe? Well, sure enough, I find this recipe and away we go.

You’re probably wondering why you haven’t seen a recipe yet.

Well, that recipe? It was half of an unmitigated disaster.

Either we made the bacon too long or marinated the scallops a little too long, or we needed double pronged skewers, something didn’t work quite right. The bacon tore too easily as we wrapped the scallops and skewered them. Was a little disappointing, as the marinade smelled incredible. So, we needed a creative solution, which leads to…

Bourbon Marinated Scallops with Crumbled Bacon

Serves 4 (main)/8 (appetizer), adapted from http://www.recipezaar.com/Bourbon-Bacon-Scallops-117964

• 6-12 slices bacon (read the recipe to figure out exactly how many)
• 3 tablespoons minced leeks
• 2 tablespoons bourbon
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• 24 large sea scallops (about 1 1/2 pounds) 

1.  Cook bacon in a hot skillet until crisp, drain, let cool and then coarsely dice.
2. Mix leeks, bourbon, honey, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard and pepper well, set aside 2-3 tablespoons for plating.
3. Put scallops in the above mixture and lightly toss.
4. Refrigerate for about an hour, gently mixing on occasion.
5. Two options: Grill or Broil. We grilled, so we’ll do it that way here.  If you’re going to broil, follow the original recipe, sans the ‘wrap in bacon’ part.
6. Remove scallops from the marinade, reserving it, and place on a skewer. Don’t group them too tight, let them be able to cook on all sides.
7. Set up your grill for indirect grilling, running it around 300F.
8. Grill for approximately 10 minutes, or until the scallops are done. Baste occasionally with the marinade. Watch closely, you don’t want to over cook.
9. When done, remove  scallops from skewer, drizzle with the reserved marinade and crumbled bacon on individual plates.

Notes:  The marinade was, by far, one of the best marinades I’ve tried, and relatively easy and definitely something I want to try

Plated Scallops with Bacon Crumbles

on other dishes. Should rock on a chicken. I’d also like to try cooking the bacon in a splash of bourbon just to try to really get the smokey boozey flavor really kicking it. Maybe a hot pepper in the marinade too.

Edited to add: I felt I should pop back in to add a little something extra. When I grilled the scallops, I also threw a handfull of wet hickory chips into the fire, just to give an added hint of smokiness. Did it turn out better because of it? Its going to be hard to tell, because I am not sure I want to play with the recipe at all, it was that good.