Archive | May, 2010

Scallops Lime and Vine

24 May

I have been a fan of Food52.com for a few months now.  Basically they are crowd-sourcing recipes from their users and will make a published cookbook out of it after a year of subsmissions (52 weeks… ya know).  They have 2 specific categories each week that they request submissions for.  I haven’t really had a great recipe to submit, but when “Your Best Scallops Recipe” came up, I realized that not only was this one of my favorite foods, but I also had some in my fridge at that moment.  I spent the next few hours contemplating exactly what was submission worthy and I decided to go out on a limb.

I had a drink at a local restaurant a few days earlier that combined grapes and lime.  The combination was PERFECT and I thought it would be a great citris to cut through the butteriness of the scallop.  It was like a twist on sweet and sour.  So I set to making up something that was simple yet different.

First, I cooked down some grapes with sugar.

Then I mashed it all up and squeezed out the delicious juices and added lime and ginger.

I then let this cook down until it was reduced to a thick sauce.

As it was reducing, I browned up some scallops.


I also tried my hand at some food styling and photography… I’m not pleased with the results, but this blog includes my less than stellar accomplishments as well, so here ya go:


We made some delicious rainbow swiss chard to go with the main dish.

So did I win?  Not even close! I wasn’t even selected as a runner up.  Poo!  My submission is here: http://www.food52.com/recipes/4067_scallops_lime_and_vine

I think it deserved an honorable mention at least, but I guess I’m biased.  I recommend this recipe highly, however, and definitely at least make the sauce! You can put it over chicken, pork, duck or it would even be great over ice cream!

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RECIPE
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Ingredients:

  • 2 cups Grapes- Seedless, Red or Black
  • 2 tablespoons Sugar
  • 1 Lime, Juiced
  • 1/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger
  • 1 pound Dry Sea Scallops
  • 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
  • 1 tablespoon Butter
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Put grapes and sugar in a sauce pan and heat over a medium flame
  2. Allow to cook until grapes are softened and juice begins to seep out (About 10 minutes)
  3. Use a potato masher to smush grapes in pot
  4. Add the lime juice and ginger, stir to combine
  5. Allow to continue cooking for about 10 more minutes until juices have reduced
  6. While the sauce reduces, in the last 5 minutes, sear scallops by heating olive oil and butter in a pan until the butter stops bubbling. Place scallops in hot pan and sear for about 2 minutes on each side until golden brown (be sure to space scallops out so they sear and don’t steam). Remove from heat
  7. Salt and pepper grape and lime sauce to taste
  8. Drizzle sauce over scallops and serve immediately

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Hippie Pie

21 May

I affectionately refer to my dad as a hippie.  He loves to watch birds, attended the march on Washington for Nixon’s inauguration, and knows how to harvest weeds from the woods and eat them.  Need I say more?

This aforementioned pie is actually Japanese Knotweed Pie and I absolutely love it. 

It’s not quite as scary when you grow up with this, but trying to convince others to try a pie made with weeds harvested along a New Jersey highway is not an easy task.

So what exactly is Japanese Knotweed?

Facts about Japanese Knotweed (thank you Wikipedia and odd factoids learned in my childhood):
– It is not only delicious (similar to rhubarb), it is used in Chinese Medicine to produce resveratrol (same thing they extract from red grapes and they say is so good for you in red wine… used in Chinese medicine for anti-aging, may have some effect in lowering blood sugar in humans) and as a nutritional supplement to regulate bowel motility (and who doesn’t need some good ol’ bowel motility?)  
– The flowers are used in beekeeping for making honey
– It helps desensitize from allergies since it contains low doses of local polen

(Note: None of the above facts have been proven by anyone of any note)

Dad made it this season with berries, and I approve! It’s a base of basically whipped cream, condensed milk, and lemonade along with the knotweed in a graham cracker crust.  The recipe will remain a family secret (sorry folks) so you have to be in the right spot at the right time around April to get a bite.

Of course, being handed a pie this delicious a few weeks into Weight Watchers was not easy… but I ate it 2 points at a time (1/16th of the pie… not bad when you figure out that’s about half a normal slice).  Delish!

Can’t wait for next April!

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Roasted Veggies

19 May

It’s beet season!  I love beets, though I only discovered that recently.  The one thing I dislike about beets, however, is how they turn everything bright pink. But they’re worth it.  I have never just cooked up beets myself, however, so I had to Google the best way to peel a beet. Turns out it’s pretty easy! Just roast them and then use a spoon to slide between the skin and the beet under running water and it just peels right off.

They cook up so beautifully that I just had to take a few glamour shots…


We were in a veggie roasting mood, so we also threw some mushrooms, onions, carrots, and (our new favorite) daikon onto a pan and cooked up a zero point veggie feast!

In general, you can basically roast any veggie.  To keep it point free, put it on a Silpat and then spray it quickly with some cooking spray.  Put in a 400 degree oven and roast for about 20 minutes (thicker, heavier veggies may take longer).  I test for doneness along the way, however, this formula works for most hard vegetables.

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