Scallops "Isobe-yaki" 帆立の磯辺焼き

We recently succumbed to one of the advertising emails we frequently get from Great-Alaska seafood. This time, the deal was 2 lbs each of wild sockeye salmon filet, colossal sea scallops and jumbo shrimp. Since the deal included three different seafoods, we thought we could handle it and ordered it. When the shipment arrived, I decided to try the scallops first. The scallops were a good size (so-called diver scallops) and nicely coated with a thin layer of ice so the outside would be protected while they thawed. I defrosted 4 scallops uncovered on a plate in the refrigerator. Interestingly, the ice coating remained intact even as the scallop itself got soft and thawed. Since I only thawed 4 to try, I made a classic Japanese snack that goes well with sake and is often served at sushi-bars 寿司や called "Hotate-no-Isobe-yaki" 帆立の磯辺焼. Whenever "Iso-be", meaning  ”near the rocky beach", is used in Japanese culinary parlance, it is a dish containing "nori" seaweed, either grilled "isobe-yaki" or fried "isobe-age" 磯辺揚げ. In this case,  it was a scallop sautéed and wrapped in nori.  At a sushi-bar, sometimes this would be handed directly to you by the sushi chef. It is literally a finger food conveyed to your mouth with your fingers as shown in the picture below--then "chomp".

The scallops are usually marinaded with soy sauce based marinade. There appears to be quite a few variations on this theme. I used a mixture of mirin and soy sauce and marinated the scallops for 10-15 minutes before cooking. Since two of the scallops were rather thick, I halved them producing 3 portions per serving. I served them with sheets of nori.

Ingredients: (for two servings of small appetizer like above)
4 scallops
Nori sheet cut into small rectangles or use packaged seasoned nori.

Marinade:
1 tbs each of soy sauce and mirin.
1 tbs unsalted butter for frying

Directions:
Place the scallops and the marinade in a small Ziploc bag (I used a sandwich bag), remove the air as much as you can and place in the refrigerator for 15 or so minutes (I am sure longer marination will not hurt). Removed from marinade and blot the excess (below).

Melt the butter and cook the scallops for 1-2 minutes each until browned (below). Add 1 -2 tsp of the marinade to the pan and put on the lid for 30 seconds. When the marinade slightly reduces, coat the scallops with sauce. Try not to over cook. (If using sashimi quality fresh scallops, the center could be raw).

Sandwich between the folded nori sheet and enjoy.

This was really good. The quality of scallops are really good. they were sweet, soft and moist. Perfect drinking snack for cold sake.