I really enjoy cooking, and the though struck me...why not write about it too! I've never done a blog before, so I'll be learning as I go. Look for recipes, thoughts on various foods, preparation techniques, wine, and even off topic posts. I guess I need to plan ahead a bit so that I can take some photos of various concotions. Take picture first, eat next is probably a good plan :)
A little bit about me. Not that I mind, but somehow I inherited the job of preparing food. I think it came about slowly, just based on my wife's schedule. She's a nurse and was not always here right at dinner time. Over the years, I've gotten more and more adventurous..trying new foods, new techniques. I have no formal traning other than watching food shows on tv and reading cookbooks. I also like to eat, so cooking goes well with that! My favorite style of cooking is probably Asian influenced, but I also love Italian food as well. (of which I an neither Asian nor Italian :) ).
Much of what I cook is not in measured form...I mostly just eye things up. Some things you need exactness in ingredients so I'll include that where needed.
Well, on to my first food discussion....
Tonight I made Scallops, small parsleyed Dutch Yellow Potatoes and wilted baby spinach and garlic..mmm!
Ingredients: fresh parsley, fresh dill, fresh lemon juice (1/4 lemon), 1lb scallops, 3/4 bag baby spinach, about 12 small potatoes (I used dutch yellow, but any small sized ones with do), butter, white wine, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper.
I started with the potatoes. These are small golf ball size tubers, so they cook fairly quickly. I put chicken broth in a medium size pan, and brought it a boil. The size of the pan should be large enough for the liquid to cover the potatoes. If you don't have a box'o broth on hand, water & bullion will do as well. While the liquid was heating, I quartered the potatoes and put then in the boiling broth. Reducing the heat, I let them cook for about 15-20 minutes. When they are close to tender, I increased the heat to allow the remaining liquid to boil away. When the liquid was almost gone, I added a handfull of chopped fresh parsley and generous pat of butter. I gently folded in the butter and parsely, removed from heat and covered. These were good to go!
Onto the scallops.. I had about a pound of sea scallops, about 13.
I put a large pan onto medium high heat..letting it come up to temperature and then put in enough olive oil to cover the pan. After drying the scallops, I gently place then in the pan, flat side down. Time for patience as it takes 5-8 minutes to develop a nice crust. (leave them alone is good advice). I carefully turned each one to do the same on the other side. I added a small bit of salt and pepper to each side. The scallops are done when both sides are well browned and they are firm to the touch. I removed the scallops do a serving bowl. While the scallops were cooking, I chopped a shallot. After removing the scallops I put the shallots in the panel, and cooked on medium heat for about a minute. I added some white wine to deglaze the pan, scraping the brown bits off the bottom. I added some sprigs of dill. I then squeezed 1/4 lemon and added a pat of butter. It thickened a little and I poured over the scallops.
While the scallops were cooking, I heated olive oil in a non-stick pan (low heat), and added 2 cloves of minced garlic, some salt and crushed red pepper. After briefly heating the garlic & peppar, I added 3/4 bag of baby spinach. I sauteed these until the leaves were wilted, turning off the heat at that time.
This fed 2 of us. We were pretty full so you might get away with serving 3.
Until next time, eat up!
