I grew up singing this nursery rhyme and skipping to "Blue bells, cockle shell; Easy ivy over" and never thought twice about the word "cockle", except to giggle a little. Coquille is French for "shell" and Coquille Saint Jacques is the name for "scallop shell" named after St. James. This week we're making Coquilles Saint Jacques Dieppoise.

Scallop Shells and the Camino of Santiago de Compostela
The scallop shell plays an important part on the Camino of Santiago de Compostela, a Christian pilgrimage to St. James' burial spot at Santiago de Compostela. The cockle shell is St. James's emblem, and you can read the history about it in this article. A friend walked the Camino a couple of years ago, and here are her thoughts on the scallop shell: Each line on the scallop shell represents the age of the scallop. As the bivalve gets older, it adds another layer to its outer shell, like the rings on a tree. When you walk the Camino, many stamps that you get for your Pilgrim's passport show a scallop shell too.

Cooking Scallops
When cooking scallops, it's better if they are slightly underdone since they can become rubbery when overcooked. I rarely order scallops when I'm out because I don't like the texture when they're overcooked. However, by cooking my scallops at home, I was able to cook them until they were just cooked through. My fork easily sliced into it, like soft butter, and it tasted like smooth custard.

Crème fraîche, Mussels, Shrimp and Mushrooms
On a foodie field trip last week, I did a crème fraîche happy dance. I've been looking for this hard-to-find ingredient since last year. I guess I just didn't know where to look. Although I've made my own, I wanted to compare it to store-bought (which I still have to do before the April 17 expiry date). I found crème fraîche at Nicastro's in the Ottawa Byward market. The crème fraîche adds a tanginess that would be missed in the sauce, so make your own or find it at your grocery store, if you can. (Nicastro's also has the best cannoli.)

My mussels are from Prince Edward Island and my shrimp flew in from China via Farm Boy and were on sale for $3.99 for 454 gram bag. My scallops are from Maine, so my meal was multi-national!

I visited another favorite food store in Ottawa last week called the Byward Fruit Market. They always have interesting fruit (and will even have cherimoya in a few weeks). I bought some fresh morel mushrooms to include in this dish.

Sauce
A la dieppoise means "sea fish garnished with crayfish tails and mussels, served with a white wine sauce". This dish can be made in one large sauté pan. After cooking each item, remove it with a slotted spoon and set aside. With each item that's cooked, the liquid builds more flavor.

Recipe: Coquilles Saint Jacques Dieppoise (Scallops with Mussels and Shrimp in Cream Sauce)

Serves: 6 (I halved the recipe.)

Ingredients:

You can find the recipe for Coquilles Saint Jacques Dieppoise (Scallops with Mussels and Shrimp in Cream Sauce) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link). To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Serve with a glass of a fruity Muscadet de Sevres et Maine, produced in the Loire area, or with a fresh Riesling from Alsace.

Tasting Notes
Through the grapevine, I had heard from other members in Whisk Wednesdays that they found this dish bland so I wasn't expecting to really like it. I was surprised and found the sauce to be rich and flavorful. I did add a splash more wine and bit of heavy cream so that I would have enough sauce for my meal. The crème fraîche was a key ingredient. Although the recipe lists heavy cream as a substitute, I would use sour cream if I didn't have crème fraîche. I'm also a sucker for anything with mushrooms, so this meal didn't disappoint at all.

This is a simple but tasty dish that will wow guests who love seafood. Plus it's economical. Serve with a crusty loaf of bread to soak up any remaining sauce on your plate.