Joey Lugo is big on being the best.
Early each morning, when the clock strikes 2, he’s out the door and driving to the fish market in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, to select from the day’s catch to take back to his store, Shipwreck Seafood Boutique, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Wild salmon. Yellowfin tuna. Fresh sea scallops.
“I guarantee my product for up to four days when I get it,” he said. The seafood case, which he sells out every day, takes up just a handful of feet in his shop, while the rest of the space is dedicated to a kitchen and seating for dining in.
Recipe: Seared Scallops With Tomato Salad
What you see is what you get. Mr. Lugo’s store is meticulously clean, and it took a second for me to realize that it didn’t smell like anything. “If your fish store smells like fish, it’s not fresh,” he said, pointing to a huge display of those ivory scallops, some of the plumpest and shiniest I’d ever seen. Indeed, they did not smell like fish, just faintly of the sea.
This is the first true secret to cooking good scallops at home: Find the freshest ones you can, and ideally at a fish market. It can seem daunting, especially in landlocked cities where the supply may not be as pristine as what you might get at a place like Shipwreck.
But there are tricks: Look for the word “dry,” which signals that the scallops weren’t stored in a solution after they were shucked. Also, smell them: Is that a fishy aroma or the scent of the sea?
The second and most important secret to cooking good scallops at home is to focus on searing just “the prettiest side,” said the chef Cali Faulkner, who whips up some incredible ones at her restaurant, Third Falcon, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. “That’s your presentation side.”
It’s not just for looks: When a protein is that small and that lean, you have only a couple of minutes before it gets stringy, she said. So get the skillet very hot before adding neutral oil, which should emit a wisp of smoke immediately, signaling that it’s time to sear. Then, sear hard.
Don’t be afraid to peek after the first minute or so, once they release from the pan, Ms. Faulkner said, adding that cooking scallops is “an intuitive thing.” Like ovens, skillets have hot spots, so if any of them aren’t browning evenly, feel free to move them around.
Since a fresh scallop can be eaten raw, the other side requires just the lightest kiss of the pan, the few seconds it takes you to grab a plate from the cupboard.
Perfectly seared scallops need little more to be complete. A squeeze of lemon is sufficient, but if you want a stellar partner to balance their sweet bite, make a side salad and an ubersavory vinaigrette. A potion of finely minced shallot and jalapeño mellowed out in red wine vinegar and a small dribble of soy sauce, inspired by mignonette, raw oysters’ classic condiment, takes scallops to even greater heights. The best deserves the best.
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Eric Kim has been a food and cooking columnist for The Times since 2021. You can find his recipes on New York Times Cooking.
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