Seared Scallops with Lemon and Thyme
Cooler-packed scallops browned in cast iron, finished with brown butter off the coals.
- calories
- 470
- weight
- 8 oz
- cal / oz
- 59
- protein
- 21 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Large sea scallops | 10-12 | kept cold on the bottom of the cooler, cooked the first night |
|---|---|---|
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Unsalted butter | 4 tbsp | cooler item; ghee works and holds up better in heat |
| Bottled lemon juice | 1/4 cup | no whole lemon to bruise in the pack |
| Dried thyme | 1 tsp | or 3 sprigs fresh if you brought them |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Build the fire early and let it burn to coals. Set the cast iron on the grate and give it four or five minutes to come up to heat.
- Blot the scallops dry with a paper towel or bandana. Wet scallops steam instead of browning. Salt and pepper both flat sides.
- Add the olive oil. When it shimmers, lay the scallops down with space between them and leave them alone for two to three minutes.
- Flip once and give them another minute or two. Pull them onto a plate and let them sit.
- Pour off the oil. Move the pan to a cooler edge of the grate, add the butter, and let it foam and go brown, two or three minutes. Watch it; over coals it turns from brown to burnt fast.
- Stir in the thyme, then the lemon juice. It will spit. Swirl until it comes together.
- Spoon the sauce over the scallops and eat them hot.
This is a home recipe that survives one night out and no further. Scallops are the whole cost of the dish and they go off fast, so they get cooked the first evening, straight from the coldest part of the cooler. Everything else on the list keeps indefinitely.
Two changes from a kitchen version. Bottled lemon juice replaces a fresh lemon, because a lemon rolling around a pack comes out as a bruised mess and the juice is what you actually need. Dried thyme replaces sprigs for the same reason. The rest is unchanged, and the technique is the point: a dry surface and a pan that is genuinely hot, or you get pale rubber instead of a crust. Coals give steadier heat than flame here, so wait for them.
Packing
Scallops go in a doubled zip bag flat against the cooler ice, under everything else. Butter in a small screw-top tub, lemon juice in a leakproof bottle, thyme and salt and pepper in one spice tin.
Variations
- No cast iron: a steel skillet on the grate works, but keep it moving over the coals so it does not scorch.
- Add a splash of white wine with the lemon juice if you have it open.
- Serve over instant polenta cooked in the same pan first, then wiped out.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/pan-seared-scallops-with-lemon-and-thyme