Easy Baked Scallops Recipe

The week before my birthday. Thirty-one. I have been alive for thirty-one years next Sunday. I have been a person for thirty-one years and a mother for six months and a full-time founder for eight days and each of these timeframes feels equally weighted, equally important, equally defining. The six months of motherhood contain as much living as the preceding thirty years. Time is not linear when you have a child. Time is measured in teeth and rolls and first foods and the sound Hana makes when she sees the ceiling fan.

Banchan Labs is humming. The July box shipped — 3,600 subscribers. James reports that month-over-month growth has been steady at 5-7%, entirely organic. No ads. No influencer partnerships. No venture capital. Just good food, good recipe cards, good kimchi, and the word-of-mouth network of Korean-American families who tell their friends and cousins and college roommates. I am proud of this growth. I am proud that it is slow and intentional and built on the actual quality of what we make. Grace says, "Fast growth is American growth. Steady growth is Korean growth." She means: the fermentation takes time. The kimchi takes time. The company takes time. Everything good takes time.

I attempted ganjang gejang — the soy-marinated raw crab. I called Jisoo for guidance. She talked me through it for forty minutes: select fresh blue crabs, clean them meticulously, prepare the soy sauce brine with garlic, ginger, chili, sugar, rice wine. Submerge the crabs. Refrigerate for two days. On the third day, drain the brine, boil it, cool it, pour it back over the crabs. Repeat this process three times over six days. The result should be silky, briny, intensely savory raw crab in a sweet-salty soy glaze. I am on day two. The crabs are in the refrigerator. The apartment smells like the sea. James said, "Is that going to be edible?" I said, "It is going to be transcendent." We will see. Jisoo has confidence. I have anxiety. The crabs have no opinion.

Kevin called Sunday. He is planning to visit in August with Lisa. He wants to see Hana — "before she walks," he said. "I want to see her while she's still portable." Hana is extremely portable. She is the most portable person I know. She travels in a carrier on my chest and a car seat in the car and a portable crib in the SoDo kitchen. She is portable and opinionated and six months old and she has two teeth and she likes sweet potatoes and she does not like avocado (yet) and she is the center of everything, the gravitational pull around which all other objects — parents, grandparents, uncles, kitchens, companies — orbit.

The recipe this week is the soy sauce brine for ganjang gejang, because the crabs are still marinating and I cannot give you the final recipe yet but I can give you the brine. Soy sauce, 2 cups. Water, 2 cups. Rice wine, 1/2 cup. Sugar, 3 tablespoons. Garlic, sliced. Ginger, sliced. Dried chili peppers, 3. Bring to a boil. Cool completely. Pour over cleaned crabs. Refrigerate. Wait. Patience. The brine is the lesson. The waiting is the recipe. Everything Korean requires waiting. I am learning to wait.

The crabs are still in the refrigerator — still marinating, still becoming — and I am learning, slowly, that patience is its own kind of cooking. But Hana is six months old and James is hungry and I am thirty-one years old next Sunday, and sometimes you need the ocean on your plate tonight, not on day six. These baked scallops are what I made on day two, while I waited. They are fast and forgiving and they smell, just faintly, like the same sea the crabs are dreaming of — a small taste of what’s coming, a reminder that good things are already here.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 25 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs large sea scallops, patted dry
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons dry white wine or chicken broth
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish
Lemon wedges, for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a shallow baking dish or oven-safe skillet large enough to hold the scallops in a single layer.
Make the garlic butter. In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter, minced garlic, white wine, and lemon juice until combined.
Arrange the scallops. Pat the scallops thoroughly dry with paper towels — this is important for a good sear and even baking. Arrange them in the prepared baking dish in a single layer, not touching.
Season and coat. Pour the garlic butter mixture evenly over the scallops. Season with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.
Add the topping. In a small bowl, combine the panko breadcrumbs and Parmesan. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over each scallop.
Bake. Transfer to the oven and bake for 12–15 minutes, until the scallops are opaque throughout and the breadcrumb topping is golden and crisp. Do not overbake — scallops continue to cook slightly after they come out of the oven.
Finish and serve. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve immediately with lemon wedges alongside crusty bread or steamed rice.

Nutrition (per serving)

Easy Baked Scallops Recipe — While the Crabs Wait, We Eat