also known as Scallops Flambéd in Whisky

Every friday, a group of friends gather to eat, drink and be merry, though we do not expect to be dead the next day. Practically every evening tend to include whisky, usually in glasses. But once in a while, we like to step it up a notch and use it as a flavouring in the food. Successful attempts include cabbage stews, entrecote marinades and cloudberry cream with caramel sauce. But none have been as successful as the flambéd scallops.

It just so happens that one of my partners in crime is a diver (let's call him Mr. Green). He had recently been out and dug up a whole lot of scallops from the bottom of the ocean, and badly needed the freezer for other stuff. So he suggested we'd eat them. Mr. Brown suggested the recipe, and Mr. Indigo handily had the bottle of Aberlour A'bunadh it reccomended.

Now, the recipe calls for only a couple of tablespoons of whisky, per batch of 10-12 scallops. We had more scallops, worked on the principle of "one for the food, one for the chef", and Mr. Indigo seems to be rather more of a pyromaniac than we had initially assumed him to be. After the first batch was done, relatively close to the recipe (you cannot have too much whisky), he was captivated (we were all rather enchanted by the blue-yellow flickers, to tell the truth). Ever the scientist, he came up with the hypothesis that more whisky would equal even better flames. It was tested twice, and both times the result seemed to confirm it. It also seemed to burn the roof a little bit, but no matter.

At the end of the evening, after having consumed one of the most perfect meals one can imagine, we realized that there was rather less than half a bottle of the whisky left.

The Recipe(2 people, theoretically speaking)

10-12 Scallops
1 medium-sized onion or small leek (or both)
1 pear
Good butter
Salt & pepper
3-4 tablespoons Aberlour A’bunadh (more is always better)

First, cut the onion or leek into half-circles and fry in butter until golden. Add the pear, cut in thin slices, for the last 2-3 minutes.

If the scallops are big, cut them in half. If they've been frozen, make sure that they're dry before frying them (because getting water in the pan is not a good thing here). Give them some salt and pepper, and fry them for 1/2-1 minute on each side. Then pour whisky over them and ignite. Watch the pretty flames dance around and destroy your fan (actually, please do not do this under the kitchen fan. Kitchen fans are full of grease, and grease can ignite. Rather, remove the pan from the fan area before igniting).

Arrange the pear and onion on two platters, put the scallops on top of that and pour the melted butter from the pan over them. Serve with white bread.