I almost called this Turkey Sabbath but that would probably have misled everyone into thinking that this was a post about turkey Sunday dinner. This is more like Sabbath from Turkey as in “rest from” it. After Canadian Thanksgiving, and six consecutive days of turkey/stuffing/potatoes, I wanted something light and fresh and citrusy. And I wanted seafood – scallops more precisely, because cooking them takes 4 minutes flat and that’s a pretty good awesomeness to time ratio. Now, despite the fact that I live on the West Coast, fresh scallops are 83 dollars a kilogram. That is not a typo: eighty-three dollars. So I offered the fish guy a 100 all in for the scallops and the exotic black kale they were nestled in, because why not have a little fun sometimes? Okay, that didn’t happen. Actually, I said: “Wow, that’s really expensive – do you have any frozen ones?” They did, and that and a mandarin orange and some tarragon in hand, I knew I had the beginnings of dinner.
Serves 2.
Lemon Tarragon Edamame Mash
Ingredients
- 2 cups shelled edamame, cooked (follow package, they take 3-4 minutes)
- 1 cup cooked potato (I used leftover mashed potatoes but roasted or boiled do equally well)
- 5-6 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1 big lemon)
- 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon, chopped
- 1 tablespoon butter
- salt to taste
Instructions
If you have a blender, just throw all the ingredients in and pulse until chunky.
If you don’t have a blender, you could just mash this all together in the pot that you cooked the edamame or potatoes in.
Mandarin and Ginger Butter Scallops with Pea Sprouts
Ingredients
- 20 Scallops
- 2 mandarin oranges
- 1 tablespoon ginger butter (steps to make it are below and also see the Note, if you are pressed for time)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- Pea shoots, big handful
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon chili oil
- Sumac, to garnish
Instructions
- Make the ginger butter. You only need 1 tablespoon for this recipe, but you won’t regret making more, so I’m starting you out with a 1/3 cup. For every 1/3 cup of ginger butter you’d like to make, use 4 tablespoons of freshly minced ginger. On low to medium heat, fry the ginger in brown butter (use regular butter if you are in a pinch). After 3 to 5 minutes, remove to a blender and puree until smooth. Set aside.
Note: I think this bit adds a lot of flavour to the dish; however if you are really in a pinch you could just mince the ginger and fry it in 2 tablespoons of regular butter and call it a day. It will still be tasty! - Pat your scallops dry.
- Take one of the mandarin oranges, section it and remove the pith. Slice the other mandarin in two pieces – you’ll juice half of it over the scallops at the end of cooking.
- In a large frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of ginger butter and 1 tablespoon of regular butter until starting to sizzle and brown.
- Add the scallops, the mandarin pieces, and the pea shoots and stir-fry for 3 to 5 minutes, until the scallops are opaque.
- Grab the half mandarin and squeeze the juice on the scallops.
- Add the chili oil.
- To serve, try a base layer of edamame mash, with scallops and pea shoots on top. Drizzle the butter from the cooking pan over everything and then garnish it with sumac.
- Tell me what you think. What makes you feel citrusy?
