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!

Bacon wrapped Scallops with Swiss Chard

All the snow seems to have inspired a sense of indulgence for me this weekend (though really, I am always on the lookout for an opportunity for indulgence). In this case, it was about some more expensive food items (scallops, pork butt, and bacon), and also some nice outings and overall sense of leisure and expansive snowy weekend time.

I did some reading, snow-shoeing (thanks to some borrowed snow shoes that I am behind in returning), and went to a really lovely, very snowy film, Happy People by Werner Herzog. The film is a documentary about a small town in Siberia that is accessible only by helicopter or boat (only when the water is not iced over). The town's people are fairly cut off from modern invention - they use snow machines and chain saws, but most everything else they make. The craftsmanship is really amazing, and the images throughout the whole film are stunning (you see many of them in the preview linked above.) It is showing at the newly refurbished Uptown Theatre - which now has very spacious, leather seating and even a bar and sofas on the 2nd floor!?

The weekend started out Friday evening with a dinner of Bacon wrapped Scallops and some Swiss Chard. I love scallops, and the slightly tart greens were a nice complement to the sweetness of the scallops and bacon. After some trial and error, My Charming Companion and I determined that 5 large scallops each is a preferred amount. Ten scallops came out to about 8/10 of a pound, so you can figure accordingly how many scallops you might prefer (remember there is a lot of bacon involved too!)

See upper right scallops for how NOT to wrap bacon!

Scallops
10 large wild scallops
10 slices of bacon (you will trim off part of each slice, which makes leftovers for breakfast!)
fresh lemon
10 toothpicks

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wrap each scallop in the bacon, making sure to overlap the bacon just enough to secure with a toothpick. Trim off excess bacon (optional) and save for tomorrow's breakfast. Place scallops in a cake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until bacon is crispy. While scallops are cooking, make chard recipe below.

Swiss Chard
1 large bunch swiss chard
1/2 onion, sliced thin
2 T ghee, butter, coconut oil, or bacon fat
splash vinegar (I used champagne vinegar, but apple cider would be good too)
salt to taste

Heat fat in a large skillet. Add onions and saute for a few minutes. Trim chard leaves chard from the ribs, and chop the ribs in small pieces. Add chopped chard ribs to onion and saute for another 5+ minutes, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent. Add chopped chard greens and saute for another 10 minutes. Season with a splash of vinegar and salt to taste.

Serve scallops over or alongside chard.

AND THEN....don't abandon the really delicious bacon fat and scallop juice from the pan! It is delicious the next morning with scrambled eggs. They taste scallop-y and soft and amazing and I could not wait to make breakfast.

Just stick the juice filled pan in the fridge overnight. In the morning, stick the pan in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes to heat up. Stir up some eggs with a bit of salt, and then pour them into the heated cake pan. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or so, stirring every few minutes. I chopped a bunch of parsley to add in to the eggs, and made a saute of onions and peppers with the leftover bacon ends to go with. Yum!