Posted in Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged asparagus, daffodils, fish store, frozen scallops, grape hyacinths, lemon vinaigrette, mother nature, quick dinner recipes, scallop recipe, scallops, spring, spring has sprung, tulips, upstate NY, wild strawberries, wondra flour on April 30, 2012|
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A few days ago we were in upstate New York spending a couple of days with our wonderful friends, Bee and Doug. I was on dinner duty with 3 packs of frozen scallops and whatever I could fend from our not insignificant pantry. I wasn’t too sure about the scallops – although I’m sure most of what we buy in our fancy neighborhood fish store have probably been frozen and thawed – but as it turned out they were quite delicious. But, that’s not the story.
The weather was not really very spring-like – in fact, big flakes of snow filled the air off and on all day – but Mother Nature had begun her work a few weeks ago when the temperatures hit the 80s – a rarity in summer in the country – and the countryside was rife with daffodils, grape hyacinths, some tulips, wild strawberries spreading in the grass with their delicate little white flowers peeking up—- and the window boxes, although moved inside, had verdant bunches of basil, sage, thyme, and parsley – no rosemary – that was in the winter-over corner where it has managed to survive through 3 winters.
Bee took our man’s best friend, Lena Mae, out for her constitutional and came back with a handful of sweet wild purple and yellow violets and 2 stalks of asparagus (the only 2 big enough to pick). So, I cooked up those scallops – dusted them with Wondra flour and salt and pepper and gave them a fast and furious sear in clarified butter – layered them on some couscous cooked in lemon/sage scented broth, drizzled the lot with a tangy lemon vinaigrette and garnished the plate with slivered raw asparagus and those little violets. Added a side of sautéed julienne of carrots and snow peas and Viola an easy and spring-like dinner was on the table in minutes.
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