4 posts tagged “scallops”

From my adventures in Indian cooking not too long ago, I have jars upon jars of Indian spices. Good thing for me, I love Indian food. Not too sure how my neighbors feel about all the pungent spices wafting in the air. They tell me that they can smell everything I cook in their bathroom. Bizarre, right? I always tell them that I'm glad that it's not the other way around. :)

For this dish, I ground a spice mix of coriander, ginger, garam masala and mustard seed in my mortar and pestle. After cooking the spices in a little olive oil, I sauteed some mushrooms, zucchini, long beans and red bell pepper. I added a little bit of vegetable stock just to moisten my curry. As always, I was trying to support local farms, so everything except for the mushrooms were from the farmers market. I also found some lovely, large sea scallops to add protein to the meal. These were from Bristol, but I have been seeing small bay scallops in the shell at the FM that I've been meaning to try. I cooked the scallops in the curry for a few minutes just before serving it all along side a steaming bowl of brown jasmine rice. This is definitely my kind of meal. Flavorful, spicy and so satisfying to scarf down.

I'm thinking some vegetable biryani for my next Indian dish. Purple, I bet you have a killer recipe. Are you dying to share it? Anybody?

How many times have I been asked about cow tipping? Countless.

How many cows have I tipped? Nada, zero, zilch.

Being from the "Asparagus Capital of the World", most people have a preconceived idea about my childhood. And though it is a very agricultural area of California, I led what I would consider a very normal suburban life. In a house, not a barn mind you! From the suburban life to city life, I've always been borderline obsessed with vegetables, most notably *asparagus*. Must have been something in the water up there. :) There's even a booth at the FM down here (300+ miles away) from Stockton that exclusively sells asparagus. Tips, white, green, jumbo, skinny... you name it. So when I saw these beauties, I grabbed as many as I thought humanly possible to consume in one week (3 bundles! Told you guys I'm crazy about 'em).
Dinner was going to be all about asparagus. To really highlight their versatility I served them two ways in this dish. I prepared a veloute, which is a stock thickened with a roux, and I also served the tender tips raw for a crisp contrast. To compliment the dish, I seared some Magdalena Bay Scallops that just seemed to melt into the veloute. I also diced up some roasted beets that added a touch of earthy sweetness and a much needed pop of color. Beet is my favorite color (Go to Foodrockz for a nice dose of beet color therapy).

Bon appetit guys. Have a great weekend. I know I'm early but since the stock market's closed tomorrow, I have the day off. Yeah! I see some molecular gastronomy in my future.

No Chinese New Year celebration would be complete without dumplings -- a token of good luck. These scallop and chive dumplings graced our dinner table. Sweet scallop meat, garlic chives and fragrant ginger encased in a golden wrapper. I was beginning to feel pretty darn lucky already!

Wishing you a year filled with good fortune, good luck and, of course, good eats!

Scallop and Chive Dumplings
Dumpling filling:
1 lb of bay scallops (no need to dish out the extra dough for the large ones since we'll be mincing them)
1/2 cup of garlic chives, diced finely
1 carrot, diced finely
1 tsp ginger root, minced
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp corn starch
1 tsp sugar (Asian cooking often uses a little sugar to balance the saltiness of the dish)
Soy sauce and white pepper to taste

3 dozen round dumpling wrappers, store bought or homemade

Pulse your filling ingredients in your food processor until incorporated. You want small chunks, not baby food. That's it. How easy is that. This filling can also be used to stuff mushrooms or simply pan fried to make scallop cakes.

The assembly: Have a little bowl of water near by. This will be your glue for your dumplings. In one hand, hold the dumpling wrapper. Use the other hand to spoon in about 1 tablespoon of filling. Using the same hand, dip one finger into the water. Wet the outer edge of one half of the wrapper. Now fold it into a semi-circle. Now I make about 3 or 4 pleats, depending on the amount of filling. I pleat both sides of the wrapper.
Place finished dumplings on a sheet lined with parchment paper. Once you're ready, the dumplings can be steamed, fried or even both for pot stickers. In the above picture, I steamed mine for about 10 minutes in a bamboo steamer lined with napa cabbage leaves.

Contrary to American culture, traditional Chinese meals call for a simple soup as the last course. It serves to both cleanse the palate and aid in digestion. The soups are very brothy and according to my mother "make you live forever and look younger" just like all the other Chinese herbs out there, right? I knew there was a reason that we had soup after EVERY meal growing up. Imagine having to drink bittermelon soup at the age of five. That was my "Brussels sprout" growing up. You can imagine all the nose plugging that went on at the dinner table those nights. :) Here's one of my favorite, non-nose plugging soups... white fungus soup. The essential ingredients include white fungus, shredded chicken, and dried shitake mushrooms, scallops and shrimp for their delicious umami contribution. The base is chicken stock (homemade of course). The white fungus has a wonderful texture with both crunchy parts closer to the core and silkier leafier pieces also. I like to throw in a few slices of fresh ginger root for a little spice. I garnish with chopped scallions for freshness. Try this Chinese alternative to chicken noodle soup on this cold winter day.