SEA SCALLOPS PROVENCALE

 I.make and present same way, only I use 1/2 clarrified butter and 1/2  oil..and add about 1/2  t  of tomato and garlic concase  piped on top for taste and  eye appeal.

Lovely! I would also have guessed there would be a little tomato in there, the adjective "provençal(e)" mostly suggests it's a dish with tomato.

Sounds really good, but just to understand since i'm mainly ignorant of most fish cooking - i would think cognac is too strong for delicate fish, but would use wine instead.  Cognac, with its rich, deep flavor seems more suited to meat.  But maybe not?  I admit ignorance. 

That little cognac won't leave too much of its own identity, especially evaporated and flamed off.  Rather it will round off any rough edges and add a mellow "bottom."  Similarly, the parsley won't add a lot of its own character but should tame the garlic so the sweet scallop taste can shine through. 

Nice recipe.

BDL

thanks BDL.  useful explanation as always

I think the "provencale" definition is probably like the "florentine" definition.  In French cooking, I believe, "Florentine" means with spinach, doesn't it?  But there is a cuisine in Florence and not everything has spinach in it!

Likewise "provencale" might mean with tomatoes and provencal herbs, but I'm sure they don't put tomato in everything (In fact, I know they don't).  So it could just mean how they would do it in Rrovence. 

The specification "Florentine" means indeed "with spinach". Does it refer to Florence? Could be, but I'm not sure. There are many dishes made with spinach carrying the specification "with spinach". One of the most wellknown being "Oeufs Florentine". Is a dish with spinach always typical a dish from the Italian Florence? Maybe not.

The specification "Provençal(e)" in a dish discription is a bit more open to interpretation imo. It suggests that the dish is "made in the style of the Provence", many times adding and/or combining tomato, lots of garlic, anchovis, pastis, thyme, onion, olive oil, aubergine, courgette, etc. A lot of dishes specified as Provençal have tomato in them, so that's what I expected when I read the title of this thread. Of course not all dishes from the Provence have tomato in them. Cognac is also not what I would discribe as typical from the Provence, pastis is their drink and it's often used in Provençal dishes. But, if a chef wants to use Cognac and call his recipe "sea scallops provencale", so be it.

Bistecca Fiorentina - Florentine steak - no spinach

I think the terms have two connotations - one is "florentine" as in "that's how they make it in florence" and the other is  "florentine" as something with spinach.  Same probably for "provencale"  -

But just for the record, not all food in florence has spinach!  not even most food!  It's just something the french must have found unusual in some florentine dishes and called them "florentine" and the name stuck.  I did a little search on Italian websites and "trippa alla fiorentina" is tripe with tomato (no spinach) and "schiacciata alla fiorentina" is a flat sweet bread

Then we might dig up the whole story of Caterina de Medici.... but we won't, right?

Yeah, what's in a name? It's like french fries, which are totally not french as you know, not as in the origine, nor in the process of making them.

There's however a positive side to this culinary mistake; it creates a discriminating distance between "our" high quality originals and the pseudo-french ones... lol

We could rename Margcata's posted recipe as "Coquilles St. Jacques flambées au Cognac" without any harm, it even sounds posh. I wouldn't want "sea scallops provencale" to conquer the US the same way "our" fries did! The people from Provence will not be amused, and remember,.. they are above all French! Ever heared of a "french colère"?

p.s. Don't worry Margcata, I'm joking, I do love your recipe!