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:
- Put grapes and sugar in a sauce pan and heat over a medium flame
- Allow to cook until grapes are softened and juice begins to seep out (About 10 minutes)
- Use a potato masher to smush grapes in pot
- Add the lime juice and ginger, stir to combine
- Allow to continue cooking for about 10 more minutes until juices have reduced
- 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
- Salt and pepper grape and lime sauce to taste
- Drizzle sauce over scallops and serve immediately
