Scoff from the Sea 1 - free scallops and hand picked black berries

Last week on a particularly low tide I happened to be down the slipway cleaning out some of my tanks, when what should I see laying amongst the exposed Laminaria, but huge tasty Queen Scallops.

Scallops are usually either hand gathered (expensive) or dredged (ecologically questionable) so when a guilt free, zero food miles option comes along, I'm a happy girl. Not one to turn down a free meal, I rinsed out my bucket and got gathering, popping them into a free tank to see if the survived the night.

After checking with Jim at the marine station that their being so far up the shore was due to nothing life threatening to me, I bagged up the first 4 and brought them home. Stopping on the way to pick some of the first ripening blackberries.

It was my first time prep-ing scallops and I have to say its not for the faint hearted, but the prospect of fried scallops, onions, garlic and chorizo and finished off with wild rice was just the incentive needed. All I needed to follow it up was my freshly made black berry and apple crumble. Brilliant!

The trickiest part is opening and cleaning the scallops, which continue to twitch after opening

These beasties were huge, and were more than enough for me.

Ta Da, Scallops and chorizo with garlic and wild rice, followed by apple and blackberry crumble. Genius!