Friday Night Rule

I have a rule on Friday nights. If the day/week has been particularly trying, I will make a decision not to cook anything, and everyone has to "fend for themselves". (My children are old enough that I will not be arrested from Child Welfare if I do not feed them.) The meal will consist of cheese and crackers, toasted bagels, or just chips and salsa. Today, feeling quite buoyant after leaving work, I stopped at my local Sobey's to find something to cook. Standing at the ready made pizza counter, I phone my 16 year old son to inquire on the pizza of choice for his repast. Then, going to the meat/fish counter, I spend quite some time deliberating on what I should buy. I tell the pleasant department manager, who I have seen on many Fridays, of my dilemma. I would like some beef tenderloin. Ahh... there is none today. I see a lamb rack behind the counter, and ask what it has been seasoned with, and if she has any in the back without seasonings. I do not like garlic powder on food and suspect this "seasoned" lamb rack may have the offending seasoning on it. I decide not to risk it and then proceed to the fish showcase. Beautiful scallops, some rainbow trout................ Scallops it is. Once home, I have to devise a menu with the scallops. Last Saturday, we went to the Strathcona Farmers Market and came away with some incredible fresh spinach, dark green and curly, like I have never seen before. This spinach needs to be sauteed! What else? I get a picture in my head..... a bed of polenta with sauteed spinach topped with pan fried scallops. That's it! Here are the pictures and a recipe of sorts.
Polenta

2 cups of water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup polenta
fresh grated parmesan cheese

Bring water to the boil with salt and then stream in the polenta and stir for a few minutes. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat to low until slowly bubbling. Let cook over low heat for approximately 30 minutes.

The polenta cooking in it's pan

Sauteed Spinach

1 shallot diced finely
butter
about 4 cups of fresh spinach
1/4 cup creme fraiche



Saute the shallot in butter until translucent, add the spinach and cook until wilted , then add the creme fraiche, and remove from heat.


While the spinach is cooking, get your saute pan hot. Pan fry the scallops, that have been seasoned with salt and pepper. Saute on one side for a few minutes, turn and then finish until the scallops are done on both sides, but still slightly rare inside.

Dishing Up......

Stir in some fresh parmesan to the polenta. Place onto a plate and make a depression in the centre with a spoon. Spoon on the spinach and top with the gorgeous scallops. We enjoyed this with a great Austrian Gruner Veltliner. Superb!

Tomatoes Like Candy!

In my part of the world, frost sometimes comes early. Sometimes so early that you spend a lot of time thinking about why you live where you do. We had to pull out our tomatoes from our garden before the 15th of September. This meant that they have been ripening in a basket on my counter since then. When 30 small roma tomatoes are ripe at the same time, you either have to eat them morning noon and night, or else do something with them. I have had some success with oven roasted tomatoes in the past, so decided that this was going to be the activity today. I oiled a bakesheet with olive oil and preheated the oven to 400 degrees. I cut all the tomatoes in half and laid them on the bakesheet. I sprinkled sea salt and fresh pepper on them, and then some fresh thyme leaves from the garden (hardy little plants, they are!) I put them in said 400 degree oven for 15 minutes, and then turned it down to 300 degrees for about and hour and a half. Below, in pictures is their journey from fresh tomato, to roasted tomatoes (soooooo sweet that they taste like candy), to an omelet for lunch that had more of the hardy herbs and goat cheese. Very Satisfying!

A "New" Pan

I must be one of the few people in the world who does not own a non stick pan. I have read all of the articles on pan fumes killing canaries, and the material that most nonstick cooking surfaces are made of: Teflon, or polytetrafluoroethylene.

"PFOA is used in the manufacture of fluorine-containing polymers, materials such as Teflon that repel water and resist staining by oil and grease. In addition to nonstick cooking surfaces, consumer applications include microwave popcorn bags and pizza delivery boxes. Because PFOA -- a synthetic industrial chemical that as far as we know does not exist in nature -- is, according to the EPA, "very persistent in the environment, [has been] found at very low levels both in the environment and in the blood of the general U.S. population, and [has] caused developmental and other adverse effects in laboratory animals." Although research on the environmental and health implications of PFOA has been fragmentary and no correlation between PFOA exposure and human cancer has been found, calls are being made in the United States and as far away as Australia to ban the chemical entirely. "

SHEESH! Sounds awful risky! Having read articles like the above, I decided to abstain from the non-stick cooking world. Until yesterday......

We have a social club at work that has periodic raffles to raise money for said club. I buy the raffle tickets and have never, in one year, won any prize. This week, the prize was a very good quality teflon pan. It is a heavy gauge pan that purportedly can go in the oven and can caramelize food quite nicely. I won the raffle. I thought that if I was going to use a teflon pan, it should be a top quality pan. I went out on a limb........ Tonight I decided to try out the pan. This is what I came up with.

Seared Scallops with Rose Beurre Blanc

We came back from B.C. with a nice rose wine made from pinot grapes from le vieux pins in Oliver B.C. The rose tints the shallots and the sauce a beautiful pink. Be sure to saute the shallots until translucent.

Sauce
1 large shallot, diced very fine
1 cup cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes
1/2 cup good quality rose wine
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp whipping cream
salt and pepper
zest of 1 lemon


Saute the shallots until translucent, in some of the butter. Add the wine and vinegar and reduce until syrupy. Remove from heat. Add the butter, one cube at a time, whisking until butter is melted. Add the whipping cream and keep warm until required. Season with the salt and pepper and very fine lemon zest. If the sauce splits, add a few drops of hot water and whisk or blend to repair.

Scallops

2 to 3 large sea scallops per person
Salt and pepper

Season scallops and sear in a good quality non stick pan. Sear the first side for less than 2 minutes. Turn scallops to sear other side. Scallops should be not quite done in the centre, just like a medium rare steak.

Spoon sauce onto plate and then place scallops on top

We served these scallops with some zucchini that was tossed with fresh thyme and butter. Delish!

Goat Milk Chronicles - Episode 3

Today is August 31st. Between my last Goat Milk post and today, I have had some unexpected things happen that has left the milk languishing in the fridge. Only 1 thing left to do. Goat Milk Riccota. I followed the directions on a cheese making site and had good results. Here is the link.
http://njnj.essortment.com/cheesemakingre_remb.htm

The ricotta went into a nice Papparadelle and Ricotta dish that I found on Lex Culinaria's blog.