Scallops with Gochujang

Have you ever heard that preparing scallops with strong tasting or hot condiments is the biggest faux pas?  I’ve read or heard it thousands of times. Sometimes not believing the “specialists” and taking risks, even with expensive products, is worth it. Scallops might look innocent, but they support perfectly well even very hot seasoning (unless one is not used to or doesn’t like hot dishes of course!).

Talking of hot condiments…. if you shop sometimes at Asian groceries, you might have come across this red box:

Gochujang is a Korean condiment based, among others, on hot pepper and fermented soybean. It is dark red, a bit sticky, hot and slightly sweet. In Korean cuisine gochujang is put into soups, sauces and marinades, and that is also how I often use it. If, like me, you love the combination of sweet and hot, you will become addicted to gochujang! I have been using it for a couple of years and cannot imagine finding my red box empty one day!

Anyway, let’s get back to the point! The last time I had scallops in my fridge I was in a lazy mood and didn’t want to cook anything complicated or/and long. Whenever I opened the fridge to find an idea the scallops seemed to wink at me… When I noticed my eternal gochujang box in the fridge, I simply had the idea to put them together! Personally I really liked the result, and to make matters worse for culinary purists, I found it really luscious with… sour cream! (My idea of trying the sour cream came from the gochujang and sour cream cold sauce I often use as a dip).

Preparation: about 15 minutes (depending on your oven)

Ingredients:

as many scallops as your appetite dictates you (shells and corals discarded)

a dollop of gochujang per each scallop

sour cream (or sour milk for a lighter version) served as a sauce

Preheat the oven upper grill.

Wash the scallops. Pat them dry and place on a dish or baking paper.

Spread some gochujang on every scallop and put them under the grill (not too close to the grill though, otherwise they’ll get burnt while still raw inside).

Grill them checking if the bottoms of the scallops are well cooked (no longer transparent, but white and opaque).

Serve with rice or good quality crunchy bread and do try the sour cream or milk!