Sydney Of The Bear's Perfect Scallops Recipe

It is hard, watching "The Bear," not to want to try to replicate all of the dishes that they put out. There is so much culinary artistry, and one can't help but want to taste it all. But Sydney's scallop dish in Season 4, Episode 3, in particular, cannot be avoided. We are first teased with the concept of a lightly seared scallop with an orange-ginger compound butter late in Episode 2, and, frankly, as soon as that idea was dropped, was anyone not locked in on the idea? The finished dish is delivered early in the next episode, and then there is no turning back. The plating is lovely, and upon tasting, Carmy declares it "better than perfect." The details of the dish are relatively sparse in the show, but we've done our best to put together a scallop dish that sings the same tune, and we think it's pretty excellent — if not "better than perfect."

This recipe is not one for the faint of heart. As befits a restaurant seeking its first Michelin star, it calls for a few elements. The lightly seared scallops take center stage alongside a few poached green beans, or "crisp verts," as Sydney refers to them on the show. But the real stars are the orange-ginger compound butter and the basil oil, which combine to give this dish a remarkable depth and complexity. If you love "The Bear" as much as we do, this is a recipe that you don't want to miss.

This recipe is divided into several pieces. First, you will make the basil oil, for which you will need basil, olive oil, and salt. Next comes the whipped compound butter, which requires salted butter, orange zest, orange juice, ginger paste, garlic paste, salt, and heavy cream. Finally, you will need green beans and scallops to finish the dish. Once you have these together, you are ready to begin preparing this elegant dish.

Bring a saucepan of water to a simmer and add the basil leaves.

Simmer the basil for around 20-30 seconds, then remove it to an ice bath for 30-60 seconds.

Spread the basil between two paper towels and gently press to remove as much water as possible.

Place the basil in a food processor or blender along with the olive oil and salt, and puree.

Pour the oil mixture into a coffee filter and allow it to slowly strain out the particulate.

Once strained, pour the basil oil into a squeeze bottle.

Next, start the compound butter by adding the butter, orange juice, orange zest, ginger paste, garlic paste, and salt to a food processor.

Puree until smooth and evenly mixed.

Melt the butter and transfer it to a mixing bowl. Add the cream and whip until well-combined and smooth.

Quickly poach the green beans for around 3 minutes, so that they are cooked but still crunchy, and then cool them in the ice bath and dry them.

Gently pat the scallops dry with a paper towel and then season the tops with half of the salt.

Bring a heavy-bottomed skillet to medium-high heat, add the oil, and then place the scallops in the pan, salted side down.

Sear the scallops for 2 minutes on this side, then salt the tops, flip them over, and cook for around 30 seconds on the other side.

Remove the scallops to a plate to rest for 2-3 minutes.

Place three scallops on each plate and carefully arrange the green beans between them. You can trim the green beans if they don't fit nicely.

Squirt plenty of basil oil over the beans in the center, then top with a good scoop of compound butter. Finish with a small squeeze of basil oil on the compound butter for color, and serve immediately.

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If you've mostly eaten scallops prepared for you at restaurants, the wide array of different options at the market may come as a surprise. There are all sorts of different sizes available – scallop size is typically denoted by "count," or the number per pound — and on top of that, you have questions like fresh versus frozen and wild scallop versus farmed. It can seem like a lot to consider. But we're here to help.

On "The Bear," Sydney's dish uses the kind of large, beautiful scallop that you won't see too many of at your local market. The restaurant on the show is high-end, and so is the scallop they chose. Instead, you can opt for a larger quantity of smaller scallops. Sea scallops are ideal for searing, as they tend to be a bit larger. Instead of one massive scallop, plan to fill each plate with three scallops that weigh about one ounce each. Stop by the fish counter at your local grocer or fish market and ask for the largest scallops they have.

If you can't find fresh scallops at your local food purveyors, that's alright too; you can buy them frozen. Frozen scallops are often on the smaller side, but you can feel the package to get an idea of what you're working with before you buy them. And if they're a bit too small, that's okay — just put more of them on the plate.

This is the real question of this recipe: How closely does it follow what Sydney makes and presents to Carmy? Honestly, it's tough to say. What she describes is a lightly seared scallop with orange and ginger compound butter and crisp verts (meaning haricots verts, French for "green beans"). What she actually delivers on the show is a bit different. For this recipe, we have split the difference between what Sydney says about the dish and what she actually delivers.

The base of the dish is lightly seared scallops and crisp green beans, just like we see on screen, except that we have opted for three smaller scallops to make this recipe easier to replicate from the supplies available at your local market. Sydney talks about an orange and ginger compound butter, but the final dish she delivers is largely obscured by some kind of pale foam. Rather than try to figure out what that might be, we stuck to the script and made a whipped compound butter filled with the flavors of orange, ginger, and garlic.

Something in Sydney's final dish that's never mentioned is the mysterious dark green oil. She adds a fairly heavy pour of some unexplained oil from a squeeze bottle. The lack of explanation gave us room for creativity, and a bit of basil flavor plays beautifully with the orange and ginger. While this recipe may not be the exact dish that she made, instead, what we have is a lovely — and delicious — homage.

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