Scallops and Shrimp with Pea Puree

Happy 2014! The new year seems a good reason to celebrate and perhaps splurge on seafood. This is the season for scallops, so they say. Last year I pretty much exclusively ate scallops wrapped in bacon, but because I seem to have given up the bacon in favor of the (more) luxurious pork belly, I got to experiment with searing the scallops instead. There is some technique to searing: you want a high heat and a fairly dry scallop. Mine went just fine with no fussing on my part, but perhaps it was beginners luck...?

This recipe is from Bon Appetit, and rather than use their pea puree recipe, which included parmesan cheese and a little butter, I used my previosly posted pea puree recipe. Mine (which is really Nigel Slater's) uses more mint and only butter (no cheese) - though I used ghee with positive results. I love this pea puree!

This dinner goes really fast: the peas cook in about 8 minutes and then only need to be pureed, and the seafood cooks in 5. Woah. Your only prep is to devein and peel the shrimp. I had not done this before, at least not the deveining. You need to just barely cut into the top of the shrimp "back" - there you will find one long thin line of a dark colored vein that you can just pull out. Here is a nice photo lesson in how to do the deveining (and peeling) process.

If you are really an expert, you could time the peas to finish cooking right after the seafood goes in the pan so that you can then puree them to keep optimum heat in the peas. I recruited My Charming Companion to watch over the seafood while I pureed so as not to mess up the searing. It was too much excitement for just me. But you could also make the pea puree early and keep it warm in the oven. Note that the recipe calls for grated lemon peel. I was without my fancy lemon grater, so chopped it up small for a not-quite-as-picturesque look.

Seared Shrimp and Scallops (by Bon Appetit, who says this serves 4, but come on people. 2 of us ate this very easily. It's seafood?!)
1 T olive oil
8 large sea scallops
8 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tsp finely grated lemon peel
1 T small fresh mint leaves (opt garnish)
Extra virgin olive oil (for drizzling)
salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in heavy large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle shrimp and scallops with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook shrimp and scallops until golden brown outside and just opaque in center, about 2-3 minutes per side.Don't fuss with them and jsut let them sit still so as to nicely sear. Use a nice flat spatula to get under them, working "assuredly" so as to unstick each scallop in a nice swoop. The timid will lose the sear - so be courageous!

Plate your pea puree on two (warmed) plates. Set scallops and shrimp atop peas. Sprinkle with lemon peel, mint leaves, a little salt and pepper, and drizzle olive oil over the top of each plate. Serve!

Pea Puree

I went to the Midtown Farmer's Market last weekend and bought a lot of English peas. Somehow I've managed to get to now without ever having eaten English peas out of their pod before, and it was really delightful to sit at the market and eat pea after pea right from the shell, a pile of shells and strings collecting at my feet. It's maybe the only vegetable I've eaten more of in a frozen variety than fresh - and oh! How I've been missing out!

I called my mom and told her about my pea eating, and she was aghast. It turns out shelling peas at her grandparents farm is one of her sweetest memories - she would get to go stay with them for a week or two in the summer, all by herself, or maybe with just one other sister. In the late afternoons my great grandmother would hand out big mounds of pea pods to shell outside. My mom remembers using her thumb to scrape all the peas out, and then eating them each night for dinner.

I too shelled my peas in the late afternoon, sitting in the shade of a big oak tree looking out over the garden. I love shelling peas! You can't really rush, so you just get to sit there, shelling away. I also was a bit ridiculously excited to use the peas to make pea puree. The pea puree made quite the scene in a top chef episode a season or two ago, and I've sort of wondered about pea puree ever since. And wonder no more! It is as delicious and satisfying as I could have imagined - sweet and creamy and fresh. And shockingly simple so long as you have shelled peas. I ate mine alongside a lovely venison steak with the first green beans from the garden.

Pea Puree (from Tender, an aptly named cookbook stemming from the author's "vegetable patch")
3 cups shelled English peas
4 sprigs fresh mint
4 T butter or ghee, melted
pinch sea salt

Cook peas in lightly salted boiling water until tender. This took about 5-8 minutes for mine - I kept tasting because I didn't want them to get overly done. Immediately put peas, mint, melted butter and salt in food processor and process until smooth. It will be a bright green, creamy texture that is quite thick. Serve right away, or keep warm in covered bowl over boiling water. (I also ate some cold the next day, and that was delicious too!)