Pan-Seared Scallops on Linguine with Tomato Cream Sauce

When it comes to seafood, shrimp is one of my very favorites. I just counted and there are twelve shrimp recipes in my archives of this very blog -- and probably 3 times that number in my recipe binders. Here's a little video tribute to my love of shrimp...mainly because I have just learned how to put videos in my blog and I am ridiculously happy about that.




The Southern husband's favorite seafood is definitely scallops. And right now there are, um, two scallop recipes in the blog archives....and one of them is not even something I cooked myself. Nowhere near enough to make a video.

Whoops. Sorry, honey.

So let's try and build up that scallop recipe list, and here's a great one to start with. For this recipe you need those big sea scallops, not the little teeny bay scallops. You don't need that many because they are being combined with a nice filling bed of pasta. (That noise you hear in the background is the Southern husband saying "Yes you DO need that many! More scallops for everyone!!!) But honestly, about four scallops per serving will do you just fine.

This comes with a lovely light sauce, and you'll see that the directions say to mix up the sauce with the linguine before you add in the scallops. This is Very Important Information, because that means each and every linguine strand will be nicely coated with your delicious sauce before you pop the seared scallops on top. Now, the key to good seared scallops is to get your pan nice and hot, pop them in there and then DO NOT TOUCH THEM for the 2 minutes they are searing on each side. That way they develop that nice dark brown seared bit all over.

So there you have it. I'll let you know when I've worked up enough scallop recipes to fill up another slideshow.

PAN-SEARED SCALLOPS ON LINGUINE WITH TOMATO CREAM SAUCE, adapted from Cooking Light

• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup minced shallots
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
• 2/3 cup chopped seeded plum tomato
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups hot cooked linguine
• Cooking spray
• 3/4 pound large sea scallops
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Chopped fresh parsley for garnish
  

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium skillet; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1/2 cup (about 5 minutes). Drain mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, reserving liquid; discard solids.

2. Return wine mixture to skillet. Add cream; cook over medium heat 1 minute. Add butter, stirring until butter melts. Stir in tomato, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Add linguine; toss well. Cover and keep warm.

3. Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Sprinkle scallops with 1/8 teaspoon salt. Arrange scallops in pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until done. Add scallops to pasta mixture; toss gently to combine. Garnish with parsley.

Click here for printable recipe

Bay Scallops Gremolata

So, do you know what gremolata is? Nope, I didn't either before I found this gem of a recipe in Sarah Chase's COLD WEATHER COOKING. Gremolata, my friends, is a mix of lemon, parsley and garlic, which you could probably mix up with anything and it would taste good. But in this recipe, it is absolutely, exquisitely perfect, and makes a lovely, easy, totally reliable dinner party entree for that holiday dinner you have been stressing about. Or even a wonderful weekday evening dinner that you can toss together in two shakes.

Basically all you are doing is chopping up red potatoes into small diced pieces and sauteing them in a little olive oil. Think of it as a red potato hash. This is going to be a bed for a quick saute of bay scallops (those little ones, not the big sea scallops), which you sear quickly and then toss with the gremolata. A little lemon juice, a scattering of parsley and that is it. Dish it out, serve it with a tossed salad on the side and some really nice french bread and butter, light some candles, put on some jazz, and your significant other will never know what hit them. Gremolata. You learn something new every day. (At least, I do!!)

BAY SCALLOPS GREMOLATA, adapted from COLD WEATHER COOKING

Serves 2

• 1 large red skinned potato, cut into tiny dice
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 pound bay scallops
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated lemon zest
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• Salt and pepper
• Lemon wedges and parsley for garnish

1. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in skillet over med-high heat and add potatoes. Saute until golden brown, 10-15 minutes. Remove from skillet and set aside.

2. Add remaining oil to skillet and heat over medium high heat. Add scallops and cook, stirring constantly, until they are lightly seared, 2-3 minutes.

3. Add lemon zest and garlic and cook 1 minute more. Return potatoes to skillet with parsley and stir to blend. Add lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

4. Serve at once garnished with lemon wedges and parsley for garnish.

Click here for printable recipe

Blackened Scallops with Mango Tomato Couscous and Chili Aioli

As you may know, I live out in the wilds of northern New Jersey. I love our little town for so many reasons, and one of the main things I love about it is that we have a rocking great library. In addition to doing all the things you would expect from a library (books, movies, CDs, book clubs, etc) they also have so many events it would make your head spin. Yoga classes? Got it. Meet the Author events? Got it. Classes on How to Understand What Your Dog is Saying? I missed this particular one, but I am pretty sure it is "Feed me more bacon!! Right now!!"

Anyway, they are now hosting what is officially my favorite library event of all time: their "Meet the Chef" series. At these events they bring in a chef from one of the area's great restaurants, and the chef cooks a meal in front of our very eyes and then answers all our questions. And then...here is the beauty part...we get to EAT what the chef has just cooked.

This week was the kick-off event with Executive Chef Chris Calcagno from Restaurant L in Allendale, New Jersey. And lucky girl that I am, the library asked me if I would be willing to photograph both Chef Calcagno and the event.

Why yes, I think I could do that. Hi there, Chef Calcagno.

The night of the event, 70 lucky people crowded into the library meeting room to see Chef C (do you mind if I call you Chef C?) work his magic with some scallops. He was calm, cool, collected and EXTREMELY organized. Here is his line-up of ingredients, which is pretty much how my own kitchen counter looks before I start cooking. Not.

He started by making the couscous. It was the large Israeli couscous variety, which he was making with mango and chopped tomato.

He put the pre-cooked couscous (I love that word) into a frying pan and ladled the mango and tomato on top, and tossed it all with butter. Because even I know that everything is better with butter.

He was very seriously concentrating as he worked, despite the fact that 70 people were drooling right in front of him.

I was extremely gratified to see that he stopped to taste things as he went along. I just knew that was the right thing to do. I tasted the peanut butter fudge cookies I made last weekend about 25 times as I went along, purely in the name of science. We chefs must do things like that.

Next came the scallops. He used those gigantic ones, and man did they look good.

He covered them with blackening spices (Paul Prudomme's variety)....

And then seared them in a little olive oil. And by the way, he made 140 of them, right before my eyes, like it was nothing. 140. I am humbled.

Yep, looks pretty good to me.

Then came the dramatic part. The Plating of the Food. I love this part.

First he packed the couscous into a small bowl and inverted it onto a dinner plate. When he lifted off the bowl, it held together perfectly into a beautiful little round shape of couscous wonderfulness.

Then he surrounded the couscous with the gorgeous blackened scallops...

Then he put just a drop of chili aioli on the top of each scallop. I need to get me one of those squirt bottles.

Oh my. Oh, my, my, my.

And to top it all off, he made little plates of the couscous and two scallops for each and every one of us.

We were all, um, just a little happy. Because as good as it looks, it tasted even better. Not kidding.

So if you are lucky enough to live in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, and are a member of the best library in the world, check out their Meet the Chefs series at the website below:

The Upper Saddle River Library

And if you want to see a slideshow of this fun event, click here:

Meet The Chefs!

And if you live anywhere in the Bergen County, New Jersey area, you might want to stop by Restaurant L, where Chef Calcagno is cooking lunch and dinner every day:

Restaurant L

And for those of you who aren't in the area, I am so, so sorry...but feel better, because the recipe for this spectacular dish is below.

Blackened Day Boat Scallops with Mango Tomato Couscous and Chili Aioli

From Restaurant L and Chef Chris Calcagno

Serves 4

2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon Chinese chili sauce

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Splash of red wine vinegar

20 large scallops, washed and cleaned

4 cups Israeli couscous
2 tomatoes, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
2 fresh mangos, peeled and cut into 1/4 inc cubes
Blackening spices (such as Paul Prudhomme)

1. Prepare aioli by grinding garlic in food processor until fine. Add egg yolk and process until egg has tripled in volume. Combine oils and add slowly to garlic mixture and process until emulsified. Add lemon juice and chili sauce and process for 10 more seconds. Season to taste and set aside.

2. Boil 8 cups of water and add a pinch of salt. Add couscous and cook until al dente, and then drain. Place in saute pan with tomatoes and mango and saute for 3-5 minutes. Stir in 2 tablespoons of butter and set aside.

3. Heat a non-stick or cast iron skillet and add a small amount of olive oil when hot. Dust scallops with blackening seasoning and add to pan, searing for two minutes on each side.

4. To assemble, mound couscous in center of plate and surround with 5 scallops. Place a drop of aioli on each scallop and serve immediately.

Click Here for Printable Recipe

Scallop, Orange and Cucumber Kabobs

I should start by saying I am slightly kabob-phobic. Generally when I make kabobs I am using either chicken or steak and assorted vegetables, and invariably the meat is cooked right and the veggies are charred within an inch of their lives, or the veggies are perfect and the meat is, um, undercooked. Which may be fine with my carnivorous Southern husband if it is steak, but chicken...not a good scenario. So I pretty much skip over kabob recipes when I run across them, despite the fact that their general approach to life -- a complete meal all cooked together on a stick -- is SO in line with my kitchen mantra: SIMPLIFY.

However, I ran across this recipe in one of my favorite cooking magazines, which is EVERYDAY FOOD. It's a little tiny magazine published by Martha Stewart's company, and I find so many great and easy recipes in it. I have a subscription to it, but you can also usually find it on those racks right by the supermarket checkout -- pick up a copy next time you are there and check it out. Anyway, they recently had a recipe for scallop kabobs, and because scallops cook in the blink of an eye, I thought maybe, just maybe, this is a kabob recipe that I can't mess up? Since the scallops and the veggies probably need the same amount of cooking time? Could it be?

It was. Glory Hallelujah.

The scallops are threaded onto the skewers with cucumber slices, orange sections, thin sliced ginger (note to self: ginger is for flavor. Ginger should be discarded before serving or your adventurous husband will eat it and it's always heart-wrenching to see a tough guy with tears in his eyes). The kabobs are basted with a honey/orange juice sauce, and take a grand total of 6 minutes on the grill. I de-skewered them onto a plate of brown rice and voila! Kabob-phobia officially cured.

Now all I need is for someone to tell me the secret to making chicken and steak kabobs. Is there a Secret Kabob Society that I can join to learn some sort of special technique? Someone let me know. In the meantime, here is the recipe for scallop kabobs, adapted with thanks from EVERYDAY FOOD.

SCALLOP, ORANGE AND CUCUMBER KABOBS

Serves 4

• Olive oil
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 navel orange, halved and cut into wedges. Juice the other half and save juice for sauce.
• 8 thin slices peeled fresh ginger
• 1/2 cucumber, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2 inch slices
• 1 pound large scallops
• Salt and pepper

1. Heat grill to medium and oil the grates.

2. Combine honey and juice in small bowl

3. On 4 skewers, thread orange wedges (through skin), cucumber, ginger and scallops, beginning and ending with oranges

4. Season with salt and pepper

5. Grill until scallops are done, turning once or twice and basting with honey mixture throughout grilling time, about 6 minutes

6. Serve over brown or white rice.