Scottish King Scallops with Whisky Cream Sauce

King scallops are a deliciously sweet type of shellfish. Soft and succulent, they almost seem to melt in the mouth - provided that they are cooked in the correct fashion. The recipe described below is for one person and includes details of the most common way in which I like to cook scallops.

Ingredients

5 or 6 Scottish King scallops
1/2lb potatoes
2 tbsp frozen peas
Circa 1 pint of milk
1 tbsp freshly chopped parsley (plus sprig for garnish)
1 clove of garlic (crushed or grated)
1 tbsp double (heavy, in USA) cream
1 tsp quality single malt Scotch whisky

Method

The first step is simply to peel and chop the potatoes and place them in to a pot of boiling, salted water. They will take around twenty-five minutes to cook.

It is important to note with scallops that the orange coral should be left intact. It is delicious! Far too many people are under the gross misapprehension that this is something to be discarded. Scottish King scallops in particular are expensive enough without discarding part of them uneaten.

After the potatoes have been on for around twenty minutes, the scallops should be added to a separate pot and enough cold milk added to completely cover them. They should not be seasoned in any way - no salt, no pepper, no herbs: nothing! It is the purely natural flavour of the Scottish King scallops that we want and not something imparted by an alien substance.

The pot containing the King scallops and milk should then be put on to a moderate heat and cooked only until the milk just begins to simmer around the edges. It must not be allowed to come to a boil. At this stage, the Scottish King scallops are cooked and should be removed from the pot with a slotted spoon to a warmed plate.

The peas will take around three minutes to cook in a separate pot in boiling water and should be put on immediately after the scallops, to be drained after this time has elapsed. The potatoes should then be drained and mashed with a little of the scallop poaching liquer, the garlic and the parsley.

The whisky cream sauce takes mere seconds. The cream and the whisky should be added to a very small saucepan and the pan heated while you stir with a wooden spoon on a very gentle heat until the sauce barely starts to simmer.

The potatoes should be added to the plate first and arranged in the form of a circular bed for the Scottish King scallops. The peas should then be placed around the edges, the scallops on top of the potatoes and the sauce drizzled very lightly over the scallops. The small sprig of parsley should be used as the final garnish.