Maine Sea Scallop, Mushroom, and Potato Gratin

This recipe would be absolutely delicious in the hands of a chef more skilled than myself. It was submitted by the chef at the Blaine House. Enough said...

I learned a couple of things, being a cook not accustomed to making fancy meals. I have no idea if the mushrooms I used were oyster mushrooms or not. Yes, I looked up pictures of them, but still not sure. Don't let me go hunting for wild mushrooms, I could probably kill somebody with my lack of identification skills.

My husband surprised me by bringing home scallops from the grocery store. I didn't even remember there was a scallop recipe in the cookbook (most of the recipes require a combination of seafoods). But there it was, when I went searching. A nice surprise. I thought I'd scoured this cookbook, since I made a master list of somewhat harder to find foods, like oyster mushrooms. And I do love scallops. So I collected the other ingredients, as best I could. We didn't have any seafood stock, so I substituted mushroom stock. Let me tell you, that was a substitute I will definitely use again, and again, and again! Mushroom stock just makes everything better, in my humble opinion. I also didn't have Gruyere cheese, but I looked up what might substitute in a pinch, and Swiss will apparently do.

My mistake? The bacon. The local grocery was cleaned out of bacon, it being a long weekend and likely lots of families wanting a nice bacon and eggs breakfast after sleeping in on Labor Day. There was this one lonely little package of bacon "ends." Not really a bad thing, bacon is pretty much flavorful no matter how you cut it. Where my mistake came in was in the actual cooking. The recipe does not advise pouring off the bacon fat, but I should have. There was far too much grease, and that made deglazing a major fail, and led to an overall greasy dish in the end. Again, not that I have anything against bacon. I love it. However, having had to surrender my gall bladder some years ago, I now choose mostly low-fat foods because it's easier on my inner plumbing. So, just for my preference, I'd go easy on the bacon next time, cooking just a little for flavor, and I'd make sure all grease is drained off.

The good news? That yummy substitute stock, mushroom, was a total win. When I made the roux, I poured in mushroom stock and presto, everything thickened up like magic, making The Most Beautiful Roux Ever. 

I have always experienced scallops as a food you don't want to undercook nor overcook. So I was decidedly nervous. The recipe calls for a brief saute of the scallops, then set aside while prepping other ingredients, then toss the whole thing together in a dish and bake at 400 degrees. I was worried about the saute time possibly overcooking the scallops, such that the 400 degree finish in the oven would make them too tough. Yes, a scallop that had one edge peeking out of the mixture did get tough, But the rest of the little white darlings were simply delicious, and the chunks of potato flavorful, and whatever kind of mushroom it was, it was tasty.

I'll try this recipe again, sans grease. Maybe I'll have learned a thing or two about mushrooms by then! The mushrooms are grown locally and sold at roadside, self-serve, so I plan to give the mushroom farmer a call to talk mushrooms soon.