skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I have a new infatuation. I've known about The Pioneer Woman for quite a while. Heck, I even have a printed copy of her Penne a la Betsy included in my Tastebook. And her cooking site held the answer when I needed to figure out what on earth to make with the load of turnips that showed up from the CSA last year (answer = turnip gratin!) But, I had never actually read anything on her blog that was not related to cooking. Until this week.
First a word of caution, don't start reading this unless you have an hour or two of uninterrupted time carved out. Because you won't want to stop. It's the real life story in blog form (to be published in a book next year, and already optioned for a movie!) of how she met her husband. I think this reading is probably for the ladies, but guys could definitely take some pointers on how to make your woman feel... special.
All of this has nothing to do with Scallops and Pasta. Except for the fact that I stumbled across this recipe when I was browsing around her site. And when I saw this I immediately craved it, even though I don't have a cast iron pan to make that beautiful sear. Then I went to my favorite grocery store they had giant sea scallops on sale. Score. My kids and I love seafood. With a husband out of town (still) we are enjoying it more often than not these days. And yes, I cook like this for myself and two small kids on a Wednesday. We're worth it.
Scallops and Pasta
only slightly tweaked from Scallops 'n Pasta
1/3 lb pasta
1 lb (about 10-12) whole giant or jumbo sea scallops
1 Tablespoon oilve oil
1 Tablespoon butter
1 small onion, finely diced
1 cup chopped tomato
1 cup white wine or stock (chicken or seafood)
a few tablespoons of parsley, chopped
freshly squeezed lemon juice
salt and pepper
1. Cook the pasta in salted water per the instructions on the box. Drain and set aside.
2. Dice onion and tomato. Chop parsely. Use paper towels to pat the scallops until they are very dry. (See picture above to find the one scallop which was not thoroughly dried.)Season with salt and pepper on both sides.
3. Heat a large frying pan or saute pan over high heat. When hot, swirl in the olive oil. Add the scallops to the pan, not touching so that they can sear properly. Cook for 2 minutes without touching then flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes until cooked through. Remove to a plate.
4. Turn the heat to low. Add the butter and the onion. Saute for 3-4 minutes then add the tomatoes.
5. Turn the heat to high and add in the white wine. Use spatula to scrape up bits in the bottom of the pan while it is bubbling. Add cooked pasta, throw in the parsley and stir well to let the sauce coat the pasta. Top with the seared scallops.
I try to keep looking at the silver lining associated with my husband's ridiculous amount of work travel. Besides the obvious benefit of beaucoup frequent flyer miles, his exposure to new countries and cultures has translated in delicious learning experiences here at home. This week is his first time in Scandinavia, and my friends who are from/live there insisted that Jansson's Temptation is a must for us to vicariously experience a proper meal from this part of the world.
For those unfamiliar with this Jansson's Temptation (as I was a few short days ago) it's a potato and onion casserole-like dish which contains Swedish anchovies, aka sprats. It's a bonus that our new dish to try contains seafood - no doubt a pleaser for my kids. Unfortunately, yes, as I sit here typing after assembling and putting this in the oven, my fingers decidedly smell like pickled sprats. Hopefully seventeen more washings will erase that aroma. (Note: it only took four.)
Procuring Swedish anchovies, I'm told, is key. Substituting regular anchovies is not acceptable, namely because it's not even the same fish. After reading this adventure of trying to locate them in NYC, I was a bit concerned if I would be able to find them in Houston. Luckily, we have Ikea, so in 65 minutes I was back home with the goods. And, some crisp bread to eat with it, as advised by said friends. (And some ligonberry preserves, what I'm planning to do with them is still TBD.)
There seemed to be several variations of this recipe around the web. But the one I made was (more or less) followed exactly from Rebecca, who claims authenticity through her Finnish husband. My kids thought it was a hit. Spencer declared Jansson's Temptation to be "AWE-SOME!" and Charlotte was fascinated with the crisp bread.
Jansson's Temptation
from Kaarle & Rebecca Rautio
2 large baking potatoes (peeled and cut into matchsticks)
1 large onion (diced small or sliced thin)
1 1/2 - 2 Cups cream
1 tin Swedish anchovies (diced, reserve liquid)
1 tomato (sliced)
salt & white pepper
butter
breadcrumbs
Chop the potatoes into matchsticks and dice the onion. Put all of this into a bowl and combine well.
Pour half of the potato/onion mix into a well-buttered casserole dish. Layer with diced anchovies. Season with white pepper and a bit of salt, if you like. Dot with butter (cut into small pieces). Pour remainder of potatoes on top. Again, add a little white pepper and salt, if you like.
Pour anchovy "juice" over casserole and then pour cream over. Liquids should be about half the depth of the dish. Place slices of tomato on top of casserole, dot with butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Cover with foil and bake for about an hour. Uncover and bake just a bit more to let top become brown.
In traditional style, you must serve this with some dark rye bread, butter, sliced cheese (for the bread), and a nice green salad! Hyvaa Ruokahalua! (Enjoy your meal!)
I just unloaded pictures off of the camera which was long overdue (600 photos - ack) and found a whole bunch of food pics that haven't yet been transformed into a blog entry. Though, I must skip ahead to last night's meal. Actually, this post was the motivation for (finally) unloading the camera.
Often times my inspiration for making a particular meal comes from watching Food Network, or cooking shows on PBS, or seeing glossy pics in a food magazine. But in this case it was very basic: it's the holiday season and lobsters are on sale. I was getting really excited to make this dish as I brought home four fresh lobster tails for $5, and tried not to think about how their freshness meant they had been separated from the rest of a live lobster body.
I didn't use any measuring devices when making this dish - just relied on 'standard' paella recipes for proportion (1:2 rice:liquid and as much seafood as you like!) even though I was using different kinds of rice with different cooking times. The finished product was much more brothy than I had anticipated, but that just meant there was more yummy flavor to sop up with bread along the way. (Note- next day all the 'extra' broth had been absorbed into the leftovers.) For vegetarians, definitely check out the most amazing tomato paella. This approach was loosely followed here, but it was entirely prepared on the stovetop.
Now, I know my little girl likes rice, and loves (loves!) seafood, but I was still a bit surprised to see how much she enjoyed this dish! "Pie-ey-yuh! Pie-ey-yuh!" I couldn't put it on her plate fast enough. To slow her down, I stopped doing the prep work on the seafood for her (I was hungry too and hadn't been able to take a bite yet!) Man, I wish I had my camera at the table last night to take a picture of her trying to get the good stuff out of the clams! I made sure to bring the camera in the kitchen when we had leftovers tonight!
Seafood Paella
1/2 pound fresh tomatoes (Campari are my favorite)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 Cups rice - I used a mix of risotto rice & short grain brown rice, but short grain white is traditional
pinch of saffron threads
1/2 Cup white wine
2 - 2 1/2 Cups chicken broth
3/4 Cup piquillo peppers (or roasted red peppers or pimento)
3/4 Cup green olives
1 1/2 Cups artichoke hearts (not marinated)
1 pound lobster tails (about 4) split in half lengthwise
1 dozen mussels, cleaned
1 1/2 dozen clams, cleaned
1 Cup frozen peas (no, it's not in any of my photos because I didn't have any, but this paella would have looked even more fabulous with some bright green dots throughout. Or parsley, also something not on hand last night.)
1. Cut tomatoes into wedges, sprinkle with kosher salt and set aside. Slice peppers into strip, quarter artichoke hearts,roughly chop olives and set those aside, together.
2. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add diced onion and minced garlic and sautee for 5 minutes. Add in rice and crushed saffron and stir to ensure rice is coated with oil.
3. Add white wine, wait until it is absorbed, then add 1 C chicken broth and cover. After liquid is absorbed, about 7-10 minutes, add another 1 C broth and cover again. After 7-10 minutes, when most of the liquid has been absorbed, add in remaining broth, tomatoes WITH any accumulated liquid on the plate, olives, peppers, artichokes and peas, then stir gently to combine. Arrange lobster tails in the pot with cut-side down and distribute clams and mussels. Replace cover and heat until seafood and rice have cooked through, another 5-7 mintues.
I'd actually never heard of this combination until this past year (again, thank you to Throwdown with Bobby Flay.) And, mussels were one type of shellfish that I really hadn't eaten very often - when given a choice, I'd choose clams. When Jim was traveling last month, Spencer's top request during our seafood extravaganza week was clams - my version of a linguini vongole. But, they had no clams at the grocery store on Monday. Or Tuesday. Or any day that week! So, that Friday even we subsitituted and made mussels perpared in a similar style. Now time for the truth: while I fully planned to serve Moules Frites when Jim was between Brussels and Geneva, Spencer kindly asked if we could have the clams that he missed out on last month. So I obliged. But, in the spirit of the continuing Euro tour, below in the info on our mussels.
As for the frites, or fries, I don't own a deep fryer and nor do I want to own one. I do know the secret to really awesome fries is frying them twice - once at a lower heat to cook the potatoes through, and a second time at a higher temp to crisp up the outside. For me, oven roasting in the way to go for making fries at home.
Back to the mussels, the real star of the show! I think they tend to release easier from the shell than clams do, making this even more kid-friendly. A term I use for how little interaction is required on the part of an adult during mealtime. During cooking, the mussels give off their juices which combines with the wine and makes a heavenly liquid that pools in the bottom of your bowl. Wise Spencer knows this is the most amazing part of the dish. Be sure to serve with a crusty European bread to soak it up - usually I buy ciabatta, but this week I discovered a freshly-baked French batard just asking to be taken home and served with this meal.
Side note: I am continually amazed & impressed at what can be found at our local grocery store.
Side note #2: If you are anti-cooking with alcohol for your children, substitute either some seafood stock (from the soup aisle) or bottled clam juice (near canned tuna.) And when I get around to posting penne a la vodka, with a full cup of vodka, we'll talk about other substitutions.
Moules Frites
no specific source
1 lb fresh mussels, scrubbed & cleaned
2 large shallots, diced
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2/3 C white wine
2T olive oil
2T parsley
Heat oil over medium heat and sweat shallots and garlic. Add wine and reduce for a few minutes. Then, crank up heat, add all mussels at once (try to get them in an even layer) and cover the pan. After 7-8 minutes, all mussels should be opened. If not, wait another minute or two, and any that still have not opened should be discarded. Remove from heat, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately with french fried potatoes (frites) or crusty European-style bread.
