Beer-braised Scallops

I was going to eat dinner at Elephant & Castle, because that's where I was doing trivia, but it seemed like a bad idea. So I poked around Yes! Organic Market, and found a lovely looking package of scallops. Not only that, but I also found a nice large-format beer, Brooklyn Sorachi Ace, so I figured, let's do some beer-braised scallops.

My first step is browning the scallops, since this isn't going to happen once there is liquid in the pan. I put in about 1 tbsp of butter, and browned them for about a minute on each side, give or take. Then I added some beer, turned down the heat, and let the scallops simmer for 2 minutes. After the scallops were done, I took them out and added some more beer and some garlic, as well as some fresh oregano, since I got some from the CSA. I figured I might as well throw in some savory and some fennel, because it's basically like mussels, right? I reduced it a bit, and it was ready!

The scallops turned out great. The sauce actually tasted a bit like a beef broth, despite the absence of any sort of meat in it. It was not as reduced as I had hoped, but that describes just about all of my sauces. I should perhaps have added some butter after removing the scallops. The scallops themselves were nice and tender with just the right amount of give to them. This is what I like about scallops, their flexibility, and these certainly didn't disappoint.