Coquille Saint-Jacques
Photo: PRA · CC BY-SA 3.0

History

The Bay of Saint-Brieuc, an hour and a quarter west along the north Breton coast, is the largest natural scallop bed in France, and the fishery is tightly rationed to protect it: a short season, a small number of licensed boats and dredging windows measured in tens of minutes a day. That scarcity is why Breton scallops sell at a premium and why they arrive in Rennes fresh in the shell rather than frozen. The name comes from the pilgrim shell of Saint James, and the classic gratin preparation baked in the shell with mushrooms and cream is nineteenth-century restaurant cooking. Rennes kitchens now mostly do less to them: a hard sear on one side, brown butter, and nothing much else.

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Common allergens: Molluscs, Dairy

Make it at home

Yield 4Hands-on 20 minTotal 30 minDifficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

  • 12 large scallops, cleaned, corals kept or removed to taste
  • 60g salted butter
  • 1 tbsp neutral oil
  • 1 lemon
  • 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  • 1 small cauliflower (optional, for a purée)
  • 100ml whole milk
  • Fleur de sel and black pepper

Method

  1. If making the purée, simmer the cauliflower florets in the milk until soft, then blend smooth with a knob of the butter and season.
  2. Pat the scallops completely dry and season them on both sides. Wet scallops steam instead of searing.
  3. Heat the oil in a heavy pan until it shimmers. Lay the scallops in clockwise so you can turn them in order.
  4. Sear 90 seconds without moving them until a deep crust forms, then turn and add the butter.
  5. Baste for 30 to 45 seconds as the butter foams and browns, then lift them out. The centres should still be translucent.
  6. Squeeze lemon into the brown butter, stir in the parsley and spoon over the scallops on the purée.

Tip from the editors. Cook them in two batches. Crowding the pan drops the temperature and you get grey, poached scallops with no crust.

Where to eat coquille saint-jacques

Coquille Saint-Jacques in Rennes

Peska ★ 4.3

€€ SeafoodSainte-Anne

Peska is a Mediterranean-leaning fish bistro on Rue Saint-Malo in Rennes, Pauline Iafrate cooking sole meunière and marinated mackerel to order.

OrderSole meunière with fermented rhubarb and fish jus

Directions

Racines 1 ★ ★ 4.7

€€€€ Tasting €60-110Modern FrenchColombierChef Virginie Giboire

Racines is Virginie Giboire's Michelin-starred room in Rennes, a fish-led tasting-menu restaurant rebuilt in 2020 a few steps off Boulevard de la Liberté.

SignatureLine-caught fish tasting menus

TipThe menu changes weekly and leans hard on Breton seafood; book several days ahead for Friday and Saturday nights.

Directions Book

Coquille ★ 4.3

€€ Locavore bistroLes Lices

Coquille is Arnaud Guilloux's locavore bistro on Rue Nantaise in Rennes, generous seasonal cooking from Breton producers with a second room in Cesson-Sévigné.

OrderThe seasonal fish of the day from Breton ports

Directions Book

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