Scallops in white wine sauce

My infatuation with Asian cooking did not seem to last long, I'm back to the Mediterranean! Though, I am still planning on giving Pad See Ewe at try (even though everything I've read says you need a commercial gas oven to make it taste right) and something with peanut sauce.

Anyway I randomly bought some bay scallops (ie the little ones) a while back. In the US it seems we eat a lot more jumbo scallops, normally grilled, but in Italy they would show up in the delicious seafood medley pasta dishes with very light wine or butter sauces. Heaven? Heaven.

I thought, I could do this. I make mussels in a wine sauce, why not some scallops? Earlier that day, I was looking at my garden, specifically the rosemary and it seemed like it might just go nicely in this sauce. Plus the parsley at the grocery store was looking pretty sad that day.

Ingredients
Bay scallops, 8 oz
linguini, 6oz (~1/2 box)
2 cups white wine
5 Tb of butter, separated
3-4 sprigs of fresh rosemary (remove leaves from stem)
1 tomato, diced
Garlic, to taste
Salt to taste

Heat 1 Tb of butter in a large sauce pan on med-high to high heat. When the pan is hot and the butter melted add the scallops and sear for 1-2 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.

In the same pan, add the remaining butter and the wine. Stir occasionally until the butter is melted and add the tomatoes, rosemary leaves, garlic and salt. Simmer on med-high heat and reduce the sauce for about 20-25 minutes or until it reaches desired thickness (should reduce by about half).

When the sauce has been reducing for approximately 10 minutes, begin preparing pasta according to the package directions (ie start boiling water around this time or the sauce won't be reduced enough). When the pasta is al dente, drain it and put in the sauce pan with the wine sauce and add the scallops. Toss the pasta and scallops in the sauce and allow to simmer for 1-3 minutes (this will give the pasta a nice flavor and heat up the scallops a bit). Serve immediately. Makes two adult-sized servings.

In the photo you will notice I had a bunch of scallops, I actually made this with a 16 oz package and the ratio was just too much, so I scaled it back.

Also, you don't want leftovers from this dish - it just won't be that great the second time around, mostly because re-heating will over cook your scallops and make them chewy. They cook very quickly - don't over do it, really a minute or maximum two is plenty.

One final note, this sauce is a basic wine-butter sauce and almost exactly like this one for mussels - try it on both pasta and mussels and expand your repertoire!

Enjoy!

Fresh pesto

Basil leaves are so aromatic they call your name as you walk past, or so I assume, I've never walked past without stopping for a sniff. The plants trumpet the delights of fresh pesto, caprese salad and real napoli pizza.

My basil plant started growing like crazy, especially considering the small pot it calls home. It was growing so much, I had to buy a food processor, seriously, it was a requirement. Plus I found an amazing deal for a small Cuisinart food processor online and now I can make hummus too.

I made just enough to use for one large serving of pasta or about a 1/4 cup.

Ingredients:
20-30 basil leaves
1 clove of garlic
~3 tablespoons of olive oile
2 tablespoons of pine nuts (or walnuts)
1/4 Parmesan or Romano cheese
sprinkling of sea salt

equipment: food processor

Place nuts and garlic and cheese in food process and chop them up. When they are corsely chopped, add salt and basil leaves and pour small amount of olive on top, reserving additional oil to add later (it helps coat the leaves and get them to settle down toward the blades). Chop until fine and well mixed, adding additional olive oil as needed.

Perfection. Or it will be next time - I used way too much garlic, as in 3 cloves, so all I could taste was garlic. When I was breaking apart the head of garlic three stray cloves broke off and I just decided to use them all, because I like crazy amounts of garlic but not that much. I have hope for the next rendition and am contemplating buying another basil plant.

Look for my end of summer post on how to preserve pesto for use during the winter months, after the of season basil harvest.

Pesto is great on pasta, sandwiches, toast with cheese and a variety of other uses. Enjoy the summer!

Urban gardening

One thing I'm really looking forward to in the new place, is starting my garden. I'm having a hard time resisting buying plants, especially since I walk past Home Depot, which has lots of little plants on display outside, every day on the way to and from work. Unfortunately, the weather is still a little unstable (ie cold!) in DC to get started. Some lettuces could have already been planted but most things have to wait until the end of April or beginning of May.

Since I live in a condo, and not a house, gardening takes a little more planning to make sure I maximize my limited space. I will putting some pots out on my balcony, which is thankfully bathed in sunlight most of the day. This is a lot more restricted then if I had a yard to work with, but it's most space I've had to use yet in DC and I'm hopeful that I will fresh veggies and herbs to use in my summer cooking! If you don't have a lot of space, don't let it discourage you from planting vegetables! You just have to think about it a little.

What am I planning to plant?
-Cherry tomatoes, I could also plant the regular variety in a pot but I like the cherry ones better so I'm going that route.
-Bell peppers, these are a pricier veggie, so I'm hoping to get a lot from my garden and not have to buy any at the store.
-Cucumbers, normally you need a big space for cucumbers because they vine all over the place! However, my step-dad told me there is a kind of "bush cucumber" that I can plant in a pot, so I'm going to check that out.
-Basil, there is nothing better than fresh basil! I'm starting out with a plant this year, because my past attempt at growing basil from a seed was a dismal failure.
-Rosemary, hopefully I will be able to keep this over the winter as rosemary is pretty cold tolerant.

I also want to check out the options for more organic home gardening. Using produce in my kitchen that I grew myself is undoubtedly as "local" as food gets but I wonder about all of these packages of Miracle this-and-that at the store. Plus I spend way more time than the average person reading about the impacts of agricultural runoff on marine environments, soil degradation and pesticides. If you have any experience with organic home gardening, please let me know!

Are you gardening in a small space? I'd love to hear about what you are planting and to share ideas!

Roasted rosemary potatoes

I also made rosemary potatoes with my windfall of free herbs. Rosemary is delicious on roasted vegetables, or chicken and very tasty in bread. All fresh bread should have rosemary! Too bad I don't have time to make any.

Making these potatoes is very simple. Chop a potatoes into evenly sized pieces, put in a baking dish. Coat lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with fresh rosemary, pepper and salt. Bake at 350 to 400 for about 45 minutes, or until tender. They can be baked at just about any temp, it will only take more or less time for them to be ready, making it easy to make them while also using the oven to make something else.

International breakfast - Not IHOP!

This weekend I went for brunch at my friend Alex's place and it was a real treat! Alex made a "Colombian Breakfast" for me. (She's Colombian.) She made a special kind of hot chocolate, arepas and eggs. It was delicious.

Arepas are a typical food in Columbia and Venezuela. They are kind of a cheesy-flat-corn bread but there are a bunch of different kinds. This was only the second time I've had them but I might try to make them, if I can find a recipe in English. Yo no habla espanol.

What I really want to talk about were the eggs, she put corn in them! And it was fantastic. I will admit to being highly skeptical of the corn in the eggs but as soon as I tried it, I was instantly converted. She just sauteed normal canned corn with a little salt and pepper until it was essentially roasted and then mixed in eggs. Fabulous! I will definitely be making eggs like this. A lot.

While eating my fabulous eggs I tried to ignore the fact that Alex put cheese in her hot chocolate...apparently this is a normal Colombian thing to do. Anyone heard of this? I did not try it but will definitely be asking around to see if this is "normal."

I also tried to ignore the fact that, her basil is kicking my sad little basil's butt.

I, of course, brought mimosas. Any excuse to drink champagne during the day!

Gardens and things...

One of the nicest things about living in a house, is having a yard and a garden. Growing your own veggies not only ensures you get the freshest ingredients for your gourmet fare but it's also dirt cheap...literally. My step-dad has a green thumb, I swear he should be secretary of agriculture because in 4' X 5' square in our backyard he fed not only our huge family but friends and half the neighborhood.

I, on the other hand, am virtually hopeless but I try. and I try. I get very hopeful looking at the little sprouts...before they all die of course.

House living, is unfortunately not the reality for most of us single gals. So I have an excuse? Not quite. There is room for herbs and they are supposed to be one of the easiest things to grow. Well, I tried last spring to grow some basil and parsley. Failure. I blame it on my apartment not getting enough light, sounds plausible right?

But last week, one of my coworkers brought some rosemary and basil from her herb garden to the office for everyone. I swear, the cuttings from her plants were the largest plants I'd ever seen. It gave me renewed motivation and I'm trying again. This time basil and oregano. I bought two of the little one dollar herb kits from Target, but I'm using my own pots because they need more space than the tiny ones they come with. The pots are from IKEA, in my last attempt, I bought two IKEA herb kits. We'll see, maybe I'll have better luck.

This is what they look like now...I'll keep you posted. Hopefully they will grow and then I will have fresh herbs all the time.