Parmesan Crusted Scallops

Want to make something quick and easy to impress your date? Look no further than these parmesan crusted scallops. You’ll need 3 things: Sea scallops, Dan-O’s Cheesoning, and grapeseed, or other neutral, oil. You’re just going to coat your scallops in Dan-O’s Cheesoning, get your pan and oil to heat, sear on both sides for about 2 minutes and then serve hot. It’s really that simple for some parmesan crusted scallops that are rich in Dan-O-Myte flavor! Serve these parmesan crusted scallops with a fresh Greek salad and some of Dan’s Stuffed Spinach Mushrooms on the side for the perfect Dan-O’s dinner date!

What is a Scallop anyways?

Scallops are just a type of mollusk, a bivalve mollusk to be exact. All that means is the interior muscle is surrounded by two shells like their kin oysters, mussels, and clams. There’s two main parts to scallops: the white adductor muscle, and the coral which is bright orange. The muscles are what we like to eat. The perfect scallop is round and tender when cooked properly with a soft sweetness and a salty finish. You can technically eat the coral but it’s not really served in the US too often. We have two classifications of scallops when it comes to cooking: Bay and sea. The bay scallops tend to be dime sized and they’re very tender. Sea scallops are able to grow much bigger with some being as big as 2 inches and are often a little more chewy. A fun fact about scallops is that they can actually “swim” rather quickly by clapping their shells together at a rapid pace. Just in case you ever wanted to sea food run. Another fun tidbit is that they have piercing blue eyes, about 50 to 100 of them! In case you wanted your seafood to sea you too.

Typically scallops come from the bay areas of the east coast, but a lot are imported from China and Mexico. There’s a large effort to reinvigorate the scallop populations in many areas like Chesapeake Bay. The main harvest time for scallops is during the late fall, and winter for peak scallop perfection but you can get them year round anyways. When it comes to cooking scallops it depends on the variety. For bay scallops, they’re best in sautes, broiling, and gentle poaching cooking methods. Sea scallops with their chewier texture are better done being seared like in this parmesan crusted scallop recipe.