quelle est une doorknob?

the joke is. a girl is like a doorknob. at one point or another in her life, everybody gets a turn at her.

Friday, January 30, 2009

scallops: 2 ways

without fail when i go to a fancy restaurant, i usually get one of two things: lamb or scallops. for this month's challenge i wanted to tackle my fear of cooking scallops at home. i made it two ways, seared, topped with lychee onion salsa and baked, topped with a sesame soy ginger sauce. both turned out really well, i mean, i liked both a lot.

handling scallops isn't as difficult as i thought. i just had to make sure it was fresh and dried completely. i seasoned with just kosher salt and pepper.

Lychee Onion Salsa:
a few lychees, chopped (i used canned)
small onion diced (red onions or scallions can be used too)
dash of lime juice
green onions, sliced (i only threw this in for the color)

mix all ingredients in bowl and refridgerate til ready to use.

Sesame Soy Ginger Sauce
few slices of candied ginger, julienned (fresh is fine too, i just wanted to use up some of the candied stuff)
splash of soy sauce
splash of sesame oil
red chile, sliced tiny (for color and some bite)
green onions, sliced (again, for color)

mix all together. i know i'm not giving any measurements, it's all about taste. i also heated it up in the microwave for about 20 seconds before topping on the scallops.

preheat oven to 400F. place 4 seasoned scallops on baking sheet. bake in oven for about 8 minutes. (i think it's entirely up to you on how well you want it done, as well as the size of the scallops. just do it til it's about opaque.)

scallops

for the remaining 4 scallops to be seared. in a pan, add a drizzle of olive oil and heat til hot. carefully place the scallops in pan, being sure to keep them apart from each other to prevent steaming. sear fro about 2-3 minutes on one side and about 1-2 minutes on flip side.

plate respective scallops seperately. for the seared scallops, i topped with the fruit. it came out sweet and tender. for the baked scallops, i topped with the sesame soy ginger sauce. it was really good too.

scallops 2

i'm really pleased with how well these came out. what i liked most was that it was all done quickly, under 30 minutes. great party food!

so until next time, may your kitchen bring forth much love to your tummy!

1 comments:

Kelcy said...

i normally shy away from scallops but i'd have to give these a shot! lookin' good!