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
On the chopping block
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?
Photograph 035 by Lauren Mancke found on minimography.com
