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Coquilles St. Jacques à la Parisienne

April 5, 2021 | Updated April 13, 2022 | Laura

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Scallops and Mushrooms in White Wine Sauce Julia Child Recipe

✽ Recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I | Julia Child ✽

Julia Child Recipe 171 | 357 recipes to go!

✽ Coquilles St. Jacques à la Parisienne [Scallops and Mushrooms in White Wine Sauce], p. 216

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✽ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.

✽ You can buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I which contains these recipes here. (affiliate link)

The purpose of this Julia Child section of my blog is to document my journey of learning how to cook. To show my successes, my failures, and what I learned along the way.

Since I didn't create these recipes (if only!), I do not post exact amounts of ingredients or word-for-word instructions. If any of these recipes spark your interest, I highly recommend you buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (affiliate link). It's a great investment and learning tool and contains hundreds of classic recipes.

I hope that you enjoy reading my thoughts, learn something new, and leave inspired to try a new recipe. Bon appétit!

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Butter Count & Cost: Coquilles St. Jacques à la Parisienne

✽ Butter Count: +5 TB

✽ Cost: $19.72 [~$3.29 per serving]

Check out the total Julia Child butter count & cost here!

→ Looking for a different Julia Child recipe? Here's a list of all of the completed and pending Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipes!

Scallops + Butter + Cheese= Love

I was so looking forward to this recipe, and it did not disappoint!

It's basically delicious scallops covered in a cream and butter sauce, and topped with cheese and butter. YUM.

Now, I'm not a huge scallop fan. I find them to be a little underwhelming. That's why it's so important to me that they are prepared well. With that said, Julia knew what she was doing.

Oh! I also got these adorable scallop baking shells (affiliate link). They really made this dish so much more fun and exciting. You can even wash them and save them for later use!

Scallops & Mushrooms in White Wine Sauce: Rating

✽ Laura's Rating: 7

✽ Brian's Rating: 7

The only reason this recipe wasn't rated higher was because it wasn't possible to get a bite of crusty cheese with each bite.

If you've been following along with the recipes, you know that cheese is my absolute favorite. The cheese crust on these scallops is AMAZING. The bites without the cheese were still good but lacking some flavor.

Next time, I'll put less filling in each scallop shell and have more scallop dishes to fill!

Coquilles St Jacques Recipe: Questions

✽ What is Sauce Parisienne?

Sauce Parisienne is made with a cooked roux and egg yolks. Cream is also added in with the egg yolks.

According to Julia, it is subtle in taste and texture. I have to agree. My first time trying sauce parisienne was in the recipe, Fish Filets Poached in White Wine; Cream and Egg Yolk Sauce.

When this sauce is topped with melty gooey Swiss cheese, it is one of my favorites. Actually, those fish filets covered in sauce parisienne was rated number one in my First Quarter of Julia Child Recipes Magazine!

✽ What shoud I serve with Coquilles St. Jacques a la Parisienne?

Julia suggests that these scallops be served as a first course or as a light lunch. They simply should only be served with hot French bread.

You don't have to tell me twice. Fresh hot bread, cheese, scallops, and butter? Yes, please!!

✽ Why is it called Coquilles St. Jacques?

Une coquille St. Jacques translates to 'a scallop shell' or 'a scallop.'

The scallop shell was the symbol of the walk to St. Jacques (Santiago in Spanish and St. James in English) de Compostela by the pilgrams during the 12th century. You could see posts, houses, and churches with the scallop symbol carved into them along the walk.

There's many different stories about how the scallops actually became the symbol. One story explains that St. Jacques used the scallop shell to beg for food and water- even the poor could contribute a small amount without being strained.

Looking for more Julia Child fish recipes to read about?

→ Check out all of the fish recipes that I've completed so far!

Fun Facts about Scallops

✽ Scallop Eyes

Scallops can respond to shadows and movements via their eyes at the end of their sensory tentacles which are located on the outer edges of their upper and lower shells.

✽ Scallop Shell Rings

Usually each ring on a scallop's shell will represent a year of growth- similar to a tree ring! However, if the scallop endures a stressful event, they may also receive a ring for that as well.

✽ How do scallops swim?

Scallops are the only bivalve mollusk that can jump and swim! They swim by opening and closing their shells very quickly to propel forward.

How to Make Coquilles St. Jacques à la Parisienne

Scallop Recipe Julia Child

✽ Step 1: Simmer Wine

The first step involves simmering dry white vermouth, seasonings, and minced shallots for a few minutes.

Aromatic Wine Julia Child

✽ Step 2: Add Scallops and Mushrooms

Scallops and Mushrooms in White Wine Sauce Julia Child

The scallops and mushrooms are then added to the wine with water so that they are covered. Again, this is brought to a simmer, covered, and slowly simmered for a few more minutes.

The mushrooms and scallops are removed from the pot, and all that seafood liquid is quickly boiled down.

Julia Child Scallops Recipe

✽ Step 3: Make Sauce Parisienne

Julia Child Sauce Parisienne Recipe

Time to make the sauce! This is the same sauce that I made for Filets de Poisson Gratinés, à la Parisienne [Fish Filets Poached in White Wine; Cream and Egg Yolk Sauce.

With a little cheese baked into it, it is so so good! It's butter, flour, milk, egg yolks, cream, seasonings, and a bit of lemon juice. That's a wonderful combination of ingredients, in my opinion!

Julia Child Sauce Parisienne

✽ Step 4: Assemble the Scallop Shells

The scallops are cut into crosswise pieces 1/8 inch thick. This means that they will be very thin round circles. This was a challenge for me and something I do need to work on!

The scallops and mushrooms are added into two-thirds of the sauce.

Coquilles St. Jacques Julia Child

Coquilles St. Jacques Julia Child Recipe

The mixture is then added into buttered scallop shells or buttered shallow dishes. They are all covered with the rest of the sauce, sprinkled with Swiss cheese, and dotted with butter.

✽ Step 5: Broil Scallops

Coquilles St. Jacques a la Parisienne Julia Child Recipe

Now the scallops just get a quick broiling until the cheese is perfectly browned!

Julia Child Coquilles St Jacques a la Parisienne

*This blog, Laura The Gastronaut, and this post were/are not endorsed or supported by Julia Child or The Julia Child Foundation.

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Category: Julia Child, Fish Cuisine: French
Keywords: coquilles st jacques recipe, julia child scallops, coquilles st jacques

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More Fish Recipes:

Coquilles St Jacques a la Provencale (another delicious scallop recipe)
Fish Filets Poached in White Wine with Mushrooms (fish filets covered in butter, cream, cheese, and mushrooms)
Fish Filets with Cream and Egg Yolk Sauce (fish filets covered in the same sauce parisienne)
→ Check out all of the completed Julia Child fish recipes!

✽ You can find this recipe and all the other Julia Child recipes I make in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I (affiliate link).
→ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.

✽ Check out my Julia Child Recipe Checklist to see a list of all my completed and pending recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking!

Bon appétit!

April 5, 2021 by Laura Ehlers

*This Coquilles St. Jacques a la Parisienne blog post may contain Amazon affiliate links. These link to products that I personally use and recommend. If you purchase anything using my links, it will not cost you anything. It will though give laurathegastronaut.com some financial support which helps me keep this blog running. Thank you for reading my blogs and your continued support.