Also known as Coquilles St Jacques Parisienne, Scallops Parisienne is my dumbed down version, simplified and streamlined; a paleo+ treat!
Coquilles St Jacques Parisienne requires Duchess Potatoes, which is mashed potato with egg yolks, re-baked. Simplified, we're just going to use mashed white potato, although this would work perfectly well with sweet potato, if that's your fancy.
First boil and mash some potato.
Next, scrape your scallops out of their shells, clean and fry off in a little butter just to colour up - two per person.
Drop in a large mushroom per person, quartered, to soak up the remaining butter.
Lower the heat a little and pour over a little cream, some white pepper and a little sea salt. If you have white wine, a splash of that would be nice.
While the cream is reducing, clean up sufficient scallop shells.
Once the cream has reduced, add in some herbs - I went with dill, but parsley would also be a great choice.
Serve out two scallops and four mushroom quarters per person into the scallop shells.
Here's the French bit ...
Soften up the mashed potato with a little butter, fold in thoroughly and transfer to a piping bag. Pipe all around the scallop shell. No piping bag? Any bag with a corner cut off will do.
Present at the table with some panache to be met with a chorus of gasps and goshes.
If you wanted to do the Duchess Potatoes thing, just stir a couple of egg yolks into the potato, pipe out and then transfer the scallops to the oven to bake through for 10 minutes, or so.
No shells? Just pipe a nice shape around the scallops on a plate.
Have fun ...
