Kick it off - Seared Scallops & Gorgonzola Israeli Cous Cous

I'm kicking off this blog with a meal I made with my sister Bria (shout out to her much more well-established and inspirational food blog http://thesepeasarehollow.blogspot.com/) more than a month ago on Labor Day weekend.

The Talking:It had been a while since Bria & I had seen each other so we caught up with all the usual stuff, and made ourselves some lovely honeydew daquiris.  Once the food was ready and we were eating, the conversation quickly moved to talking about our food and how good it was. Eventually, on our second bottle of wine, we made this shocking discovery:  The bottle of Rioja we were drinking tasted like bacon!  Now, I had already consumed 2 other bottles of the same wine, and no bacon flavor was detected.  This was a revelation, because our family loves bacon, I mean really  loves bacon.  Almost every dish in our Thanksgiving meal includes some sort of bacon.  It was crazy, but it could have just been the alcohol getting to us.  Anyway, now on to the good stuff...

The Eating:

Bria was in town for the long weekend, and we decided what's more fun than sisters cooking together? We decided on scallops for the main ingredient, and made up the rest from there. We discussed, and based on an appetizer I'd had at 112 Eatery, decided that scallops drizzled with the truffle oil I had recently bought at the farmer's market would be great. I'm not going to lie: truffles are one of my top 3 favorite foods in the whole world (the others being the aforementioned bacon, and cheese). If I go out to eat, and there is something with truffles or truffle oil on the menu, odds are I'm ordering it!

Adding the scallops to a bed of fresh sweet corn/red pepper/red onion salad, we were well on our way. We found a great side dish in an old Marshall Field's cookbook, gorgonzola couscous. Looking back, we definitely agreed that the two components of our meal didn't exactly go together, but they turned out oh so good! Off to Whole Foods we went, and what resulted is below.  Enjoy!

Seared Scallops with Truffle Oil and Corn Salad

(this is approximate, since we didn't use a recipe)

8 medium/large sea scallops

2 tbsp butter

1/2 tbsp olive oil

salt & pepper

truffle oil for drizzling

Corn salad:
1 tbsp butter

1/2 ears of fresh sweet corn, shucked and corn removed from cob

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 red onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

fresh thyme

fresh parsley

salt & pepper to taste

Heat a large skillet (to get the best carmelization don't use non-stick). Add the butter and oil and heat until the butter is melted. Dry off the scallops with a paper towel. This helps get a good sear as well. Place the scallops in the pan, and let cook 2 minutes per side. Don't move the scallops once you've set them down.

 

 

For the corn salad, melt another tablespoon of butter in a skillet, and combine garlic, peppers, and onions.  Cook until just softened.  Add the corn, thyme, and salt and pepper.  Cook just a few minutes, remove from heat and toss with the parsley. Top the salad with the scallops and drizzle with truffle oil. Then say "mmmm".

 

 

 

Gorgonzola Couscous

(adapted from Todd English's recipe in the Marshall Field's cookbook)

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 small leek, trimmed, washed and diced

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups Israeli couscous, toasted (I found israeli couscous in the bulk section of Whole Foods - it is kind of hard to find other places)

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

4 oz crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

salt and pepper

 

To toast the couscous, add it to a dry pan and cook for 4-5 minutes until aromatic and golden brown. 

 

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the leek and cook until soft, about 3-4 minutes.  Add the broth and bring to a boil. Stir in the couscous and cook at a rolling boil for 1 minute, then cover and remove from heat. Allow to rest for about 20 minutes until all of the liquid is absorbed. Place the pan over low heat and stir in the cream and cheese.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Final product is gooey and creamy and delicious.  This was my first time cooking with israeli couscous, and it was a good base recipe, I can see adding in all sorts of things to make this different and even better.