Comfort Food

I had a rough week.  It definitely had some high points like going to dinner with the Peds Rheum Family (well, at least that's how I like to think of them!) on Thursday night at Blossom downtown.  Yep, I drug Rick downtown after work for dinner.  It's a miracle that either one of us made it back over the Bridge, but it was for a good cause.  Dinner was delicious (of course).  I had the shrimp and grits as my entree, and at the urging of Dr. Silver, Rick and I split the most delicious dessert I have ever had that wasn't chocolate.  We had red velvet bread pudding!  Words cannot describe how wonderful it was.  I was totally stuffed, but I still managed to eat almost half of it!  Definitely a perfect comfort food.  I would KILL for that recipe!  

In my own kitchen, I made one of my favorite comfort food dishes after a rather stressful day at work on Tuesday.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to make for dinner that night or even if I really wanted to cook.  Rick had suggested pizza, but I wasn't in the mood for that either.  After searching the local grocery store fliers, I realized that sea scallops were on sale, and I immediately thought of one of my favorite comfort food recipes from epicurious.com for Sea Scallops with Mashed Potatoes.  The original recipe calls for tarragon, and I'm not a huge tarragon fan.  In the past, I've subbed rosemary, but Rick's not a big rosemary fan.  This time around, I decided to add garlic to the sauce to give it a little something extra.  As always, it was delicious!!!


Here's what I did....


Sea Scallops with Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients

• 2 pounds Yukon potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick), room temperature
• 2/3 cup (or more) low fat milk
• 12 sea scallops, side muscles trimmed
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons chopped shallot
• 2 tablespoons half and half
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

Place potatoes in a pot and cover with water.  Add salt and bring to water to a boil over high heat.  Boil until the potato pieces break easily when pierced with a fork.  Drain water.  Add 1/2 stick of butter and milk to the potatoes in the pot and whip using a hand mixer.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside.  Before serving the scallops, heat over medium heat (you may need to add more milk if they start to dry out).

Sprinkle scallops with salt and pepper.  Heat olive oil in a large pan/skillet over medium high heat.  Add scallops to the pan.  Sauté until just opaque in center, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to plate; tent with foil. Reserve juices in skillet.   

Place garlic and shallots in small saucepan. After garlic starts to brown, add wine and simmer over medium heat until reduced to glaze, about 3 minutes. Stir in half and half and simmer 1 minute. Gradually whisk in remaining 1/2 stick butter. Stir in reserved pan juices.

Divide potatoes into 4 bowls, top with 4 scallops, and then drizzle sauce over the scallops.

Enjoy!

Bay scallops and linguine in a wine sauce

Tonight, I did something that I haven't done in a long time:  I just threw something together and hoped for the best.  Harris Teeter had bay scallops on sale, and I was inspired by the mussel dish that I had a Sette last Friday night to make a wine sauce.  I dug out some of the crab stock that I had in the freezer to use (you can substitute clam juice if you don't have any stock handy).  Last night, Rick had wanted us to cook something, but honestly, I wasn't in the mood.  I was tired and cranky, but it's amazing what a difference a day can make!  I was totally in the mood to cook tonight and actually be somewhat creative.  I warned Rick that I was pulling it out of you-know-where, but luckily, it was a winner!  We enjoyed it with some Texas Toast which was perfect for dipping in the sauce and also topped it with some shaved Parmesan cheese.  YUM!!!!


Here's what I did...



Scallops with a Wine Sauce
Ingredients
1/2 box of whole wheat linguine
1 pound bay scallops
1/3 cup basil, chopped
1/2 medium sweet onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can of diced tomatoes (no salt added type, do not drain)
2 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup crab stock
1 1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and pepper

Directions

Cook pasta per directions on the box.

Heat olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic and scallops to the skillet, season with salt and pepper, and saute for 3 minutes.  Remove scallops with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl.  Cover with aluminum foil to keep it warm.  Add onions, basil, and tomatoes to the skillet.  Season with red crushed pepper as desired.  Increase heat to medium-high and simmer for about 10 minutes until it starts to thicken.  Add stock, wine, and butter, and season with additional salt (I used about 1-2 teaspoons of salt) and pepper.  Simmer for an additional 5 minutes.  

Plate linguine and top with seafood sauce.  (It should serve 4).

Enjoy!

Sauteed Scallops in a Mustard-Dill Sauce: A mistake that turned out pretty awesome

Once upon a time, I was planning a meal for Rick and I. It was early on in our relationship, and I wanted to make him another delicious dish. I knew that I wanted to do something with scallops, and I accidentally had two different recipes in mind when I was gathering my ingredients at Publix that day. When I got home, I realized what I had done, but I decided to go out on my own and made this. In the end, it turned out to be one of Rick's favorites.

You can serve it over pasta or alone. Chicken can also be used instead of scallops if you don't like them, but of course, cooking time for it will be different.

Ingredients
1 1/2 tablespons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh dill (chopped) + 2 sprigs for garnish
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 large garlic clove (minced)
1 large shallot (minced)
3/4 cup white wine
1 lbs sea scallops (dried off, remove tough muscle if necessary, salt and pepper to taste)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Instructions
-Heat the oil on med-high (don't smoke the oil) in a large skillet
-Saute scallops until golden brown on both sides. Remove scallops and place on a plate and loosely cover with aluminum foil to keep warm
-Reduce heat to med-low and add garlic and shallot to the skillet. Saute for around 1 minute.
-Add 1/2 cup of wine and reduce by half
-Add lemon juice, rest of wine, mustard, and dill. Stir together and reduce a little bit more. Be sure not to bring it to a rapid boil.
-Combine scallops and sauce either on plates or over pasta of your choice.

Warm Scallop Salad with Prosciutto Chips

I have to admit that I was disappointed a few weeks ago when Rick finally admitted to me that he wasn't a fan of this recipe...or as he put it, it wasn't one of his favorites. He said that it was too lemony which sent me into the kitchen to try to make it something that he loves as much as I do! Adding a pinch of sugar definitely takes care of the tartness from the lemon, and I like to add a couple of tablespoons of white wine to the lemon juice to make a more complex.

I've been making this recipe for years, and I've been known to add thinly sliced onions and tomatoes to the salad. I serve it as a main course and use 10-12 sea scallops when I'm making it for two.

Here is the recipe with my adaptations.

Ingredients

4 paper-thin slices prosciutto
6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Romaine Lettuce
1/2 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
10 sea scallops
All purpose flour
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 tablespoons white wine
Parmesan cheese (shredded)


Directions
Brush each prosciutto slice on 1 side lightly with some of oil. Heat heavy large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 slices prosciutto, oiled side down. Cook until bottom is lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Turn prosciutto over and cook until bottom is browned, flattening with spatula, about 1 minute longer. Using tongs, transfer prosciutto to paper towels to crisp. Repeat with remaining 2 slices prosciutto. Reserve skillet.

Place lettuce and basil in large bowl and mix together. Set aside.

Sprinkle scallops with salt and pepper; dust lightly with flour. Heat remaining oil in reserved skillet over medium-high heat. Add scallops and cook until brown and just opaque in center, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to plate.

Saute garlic in pan. Add white wine, lemon juice and lemon peel to drippings in skillet. Bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits. Pour pan juices over greens and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide salad among 2 plates and top with scallops. Garnish with prosciutto chips and serve. I like to tent them around the center of the salad and surround them with the scallops. Sprinkle with shredded parmesan cheese.

A Hidden Gem in My epicurious.com Recipe Box

Even though I was excited about seeing Rick last night, I have to admit that I was tired after a long night at the library the night before. I took a power nap after work, and when Rick's calling woke me up, I wasn't in the mood to do anything complicated for dinner. Rick said that he wasn't really hungry after going to luncheon at work so I started combing my epicurious.com recipe box for something light and easy to make. I wanted to do something with seafood as I always have a pound of frozen shrimp in the freezer, and I didn't want to have to go to the grocery store. I was looking for something new, and nothing was really appealing to me until I came to the last one in the box. Luckily, epicurious.com has this really cool feature that allows you to sort so I didn't have to go through all 600+ recipes. This particular recipe was added in June 1999, and oddly, I had never tried it. Sounded good...pasta, seafood, basil, garlic....and didn't sound too difficult.

When I went to the pantry, I realized that I didn't have any linguine. I called Rick, and he didn't either so despite my lack of desire to go to the grocery store, I found myself heading up to Publix. While there, I cruised over to the seafood counter and saw that bay scallops and small shrimp were on sale so I went ahead and got a pound of shrimp (already peeled and deveined!) and a half of pound of bay scallops to go with my pasta. I also decided to get a shallot, too.

Our timing was perfect as Rick and I got to my place at the same time. We picked some basil from our plants. Rick was on pasta duty while I did all the chopping. I wasn't able to crush the fennel seeds, and I really think I need a mortar and pestle. When cooking the shallot, garlic, and basil, I used pepper oil instead of plain ole olive oil. I never really measure how much I put in the pan before I saute--just enough to cover the bottom. I reduced the fennel seeds by half. The smell of the garlic, basil, fennel, and shallot that filled my condo was amazing.

After the shrimp (yep, used the whole pound) and scallops cooked for around two minutes, I added 1/2 of white wine and continued to cook until the shrimp were opaque. Finally, I added 1 tablespoon of butter to the pan. I made sure not to cook the sauce down too much. I had Rick taste it to see if it needed anything else, but he couldn't think of anything. We both thought that maybe it was a little salty. When the pasta, seafood mix and 3 cheese blend (I live by this stuff!) were all tossed together, saltiness was definitely not a problem! A little more cheese and a sprinkle of dried parsley to garnish were added when I plated it. Rick called the dish exceptional! He really liked the little bite that the pepper oil gave it.

Yep, this dish was perfect. It was simple and easy and not heavy at all. I think that next time, I may use another shallot.

Here is the original recipe.

Seafood Catizone

Bon Appétit | December 1990

A shrimp and scallop pasta dish with basil and fennel.

Yield: 4 first- or 2 main-course servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried basil, crumbled
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
1/2 pound medium uncooked shrimp, peeled, deveined
1/2 pound scallops
8 ounces linguine, freshly cooked
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
Additional grated Parmesan

Preparation

Melt butter with 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, basil and fennel and sauté 1 minute. Add shrimp and scallops and sauté until both are just opaque, about 4 minutes.
Place linguine in bowl. Toss with remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Pour sauce over linguine and toss. Add 1/3 cup Parmesan and toss again. Pass additional Parmesan separately.

Changes that I made:

• used 1 pound of small shrimp
• used 2 tablespoons of fresh basil instead of dried
• added a chopped shallot
  
• added 1/2 cup white wine
• cooked in pepper oil
• added butter to pan at the end
• subbed 1/2 cup of 3 cheese blend instead of grated Parmesan