This is actually adapted from my recipe for Steak au Poivre, beef fillets coated with pepper and served with a cognac cream sauce. However, scallops have a more delicate flavor and you wouldn't want to coat them with pepper, hence the recipe name. I've also found that scallops sear better with only a thin coat of oil in the pan so I've deleted the butter and reduced the olive oil.
I serve these over rice, and I've found it works best to arrange the scallops on a bed of rice and pour the cognac / cream sauce over them, unlike the steak version, where you add the steaks back to the pan and turn them to coat. Scallops are just too easy to overcook.
Ingredients
1 lb sea scallops
Kosher salt
1 tablespoon olive oil (about)
1/3 cup Cognac plus 1 teaspoon
1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
1. Prepare the sea scallops: lay out on paper towels and remove the chewy "tendon" most will have. Sprinkle with salt and cover with another layer of paper towels; the salt will draw out more moisture. You want the scallops to be very dry to sear well. Meanwhile, make the rice.
2. Sear the scallops: it's best to sear the scallops only on one side, otherwise they'll overcook. Heat a 12" skillet over high heat, and add the tablespoon of olive oil; you want just enough olive oil to coat the surface of the pan. When the olive oil is just about smoking lay the scallops in the pan in a single layer as fast as you can. Sear them until well browned, 1-1/2 to 2 mnutes. This is the tricky part, scallops (unlike beef) can be hard to sear and they're also extremely easy to overcook. To succeed they need to be very dry and the pan needs to be very hot. Once you have a good sear immediately flip the scallops and cook for no more than 20 seconds or so on the other side, much longer and they'll overcook. This will "set" the other side of the scallops.
3. Remove the scallops to a plate, cover and set aside. Remove the skillet from the heat. Allow the skillet to cool down a little; see my note below about fireballs. Then add 1/3 cup Cognac to the pan and carefully ignite the alcohol with a long match. Gently shake pan and scrape up the "fond" from the scallops until the flames die. Return the pan to medium heat, and add the cream plus any juices that have accumulated on the plate with the scallops. Bring the mixture to a boil and whisk until the sauce coats the back of a spoon, approximately 5 to 6 minutes. Add the teaspoon of Cognac and season, to taste, with salt.
4. Put the rice on a plate, serving platter or shallow bowl (whatever you prefer; I put it in a 2 quart glass casserole dish). Place the scallops on the rice. Pour the cognac / cream sauce over the scallops and rice and serve.
FIREBALLS NOTE (Step 3) When you add alcohol like Cognac to a hot pan and set a match to it, it's actually the alcohol vapor boiling off that ignites. If you let the pan cool before adding the cognac it won't flame as well and if it cools all the way it may not ignite at all because the alcohol isn't boiling off. OTOH, if you add the cognac immediately after removing the scallops when the pan is very hot, the cognac will hiss and boil very rapidly. Then when you touch a flame to it you will get a very large fireball that will probably set off your fire alarm. I use a 12" cast iron skillet, which takes some time to cool off. In my case I wait about 3-1/2 minutes before adding the cognac; the pan is still hot enough to generate vapor to ignite the fumes, but not so hot that all the cognac flash-boils and I get a huge fireball.