DELICIOUS 5 Minute Miso Butter Grilled Scallops

These grilled miso butter scallops are one of the easiest and most delicious dinner recipes you can make and take about 5 minutes on the grill. And would you believe that they only have 5 ingredients and taste like they came from a restaurant? That's because they did! They were one of the most popular dishes at Ape restaurant and when I ate them I just had to ask them for the recipe and they were kind enough to share the recipe with me!

This is one of the recipes I brought back from my trip to Newcastle to preview Newcastle Food Month in April. We had eaten some of the best food while on this trip and some of the chefs were kind enough to share recipes with us. These grilled scallops come from Âpé restaurant which is a yakitori restaurant with a large charcoal grill. Chef Nicolas Pedemonte is actually Chilean but these scallops have Japanese flavours to them. They are very simple and made with just a few ingredients and cook very quickly. For Newcastle Food Month Chef Nicolas is hosting a Chilean Asado BBQ long lunch on the 6th of April, 2025.

This version is made for the home kitchen. While we have a charcoal BBQ it is a big production to get it started so I wanted to make sure that I could make this using your kitchen grill and I'm very happy to report that they worked really well!

Tips For Making These Miso Butter Scallops

1 - Use white miso in these as white miso is milder and sweeter than other miso pastes.

2 -I love grilling scallops because it is so quick and easy. They take around 5 minutes in the grill. Some thicker scallops like Hokkaido scallops may take a minute or two longer.

3 - You can make this in the Hibachi grill or on your kitchen grill.

4 - Yuzu juice can be found at Asian grocery stores. Look for pure yuzu juice without sugar added.

5 - You can make the compound butter ahead of time and keep it in the freezer until you need to use it.

• Other Recipes Using White Miso Paste You Might Like
• Sticky Miso Glazed Chicken
• Miso Soup
• Japanese Miso Eggplant Nasu Dengaku
• Miso Caramel Apple Tart

I was so excited to have these recipes to make when I got back from Newcastle and I knew that the scallops would be one of the first to make because they're an easy dinner or entertaining recipe. You can keep the scallops with the butter in the shell in the fridge until they're ready to grill and it's literally 5 minutes under the grill.

When I went to Newcastle I drove myself there and back as Mr NQN was at home with the dogs. I don't like driving long distances so I try to make sure that I have enough stops and feel comfortable. I had a drink ready in the middle console of the car. It was semi frozen so I figured that by the time I was driving home, it would be just cold after sitting in the car. I got back into my car and I sat down and then looked down and let out a horrified scream. There were ants crawling all over my drink!

We have had ants in the car in the past (I'm not sure from where) and I thought we had gotten rid of them using a trap but clearly I was wrong. Dozens of ants were crawling around my drink and the middle console so I grabbed my pistachio matcha latte and with great sadness threw it away. I wiped everything down with a wet wipe and mourned the loss of the drink that I was looking forward to drinking on the drive home.

When I was on the road and on my way home I started to feel a little pinch on my bottom sort of like a little bite. And then more and more. I don't know if it was a mental thing but I swore that I was getting bitten on my ass while I was driving. I felt ants crawling all over me and I tried to stay calm while driving home. Most people are hugely relieved once they get home but I was super, super happy to get home and out of the car!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you have any tips on how to get rid of ants out of a car permanently? Do you make grilled scallops?

Grilled Scallops

Adapted from Chef Nicolas Pedemonte

Preparation time: 20 minutes plus 30 minutes freezing time

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Makes: 12 scallops

• 90g/3ozs salted butter, softened

• 15ml/0.5floz yuzu juice

• 30g/1oz white miso paste

• Pinch of sugar

• 12 scallops in shell

• 70ml/2.5flozs extra dry sake (Junmai)

• Salt for seasoning

Step 1 - Leave butter on benchtop to soften until soft and creamy in texture (or microwave on 10% in 1 minute bursts). Add white miso paste and sugar and mix everything with a whisk until incorporated. Add cold yuzu juice slowly to incorporate.

Step 2 - Using cling film, place the butter mixture and roll to a sausage shape no bigger the 2cm/0.8inch wide. Freeze for 30 minutes until hard. Slice into 0.5cm/0.2inch discs. Place the butter under the scallop.

Step 3 - In a grill on high or a hibachi set with charcoal to high intensity (hibachi temperature around 400C/752F) place the scallops and 2 teaspoons or so of sake until the scallop shell is full. When butter is melted and the shells start browning turn the scallop and over and grill for another couple of minutes. Decorate with chiffonade of shiso and an extra sprinkle of salt and place on a platter with rock salt.