Warm Scallop and Bacon Salad

Last night I made a simple salad with sea scallops and bacon. Served with rice pilaf, it's an easy and quick dinner. I got the rice cooking before starting anything else since the rest of the dish doesn't take long at all to cook and assemble.

Sea scallops (4-5 per person)
Bacon
Sea salt & black pepper
Bibb, Boston or Butter lettuce
Ripe Jersey tomatoes
Balsamic vinegar
Brown sugar

In a measuring cup add 1 cup of balsamic vinegar and mix in a heaping tablespoon of brown sugar. Set aside.

Put out your plates - arrange the lettuce and tomatoes on each, set aside.
Rinse and pat dry the scallops; salt and pepper each side.

In a large saute pan cook 4 to 6 pieces of bacon. Remove bacon from pan and set on paper towels to drain and cool. Once you can handle the bacon, chop or tear into bite size pieces; sprinkle generously over your lettuce/tomato.

In the still warm saute pan but the heat back up to high; with the bacon drippings still in the pan, saute your sea scallops (don't crowd the scallops; do in shifts if using a smaller pan). Cook 90 seconds and no more; flip over and 90 seconds on the other side. Remove immediately from the pan and place scallops on the lettuce, tomato, bacon.

Reduce the heat in the saute pan to medium, add in the balsamic vinegar. Using a wooden spoon, scape up the bits of on the bottom, deglazing as you go. When the mixture gets to a boil, reduce down to low and continue reducing for about 5 minutes.

Spoon the reduction sauce over your scallop salad and serve immediately.

Halibut and Corn Hobo Packs with Herbed Butter

Looking for something new and easy for fish the other night, I tried a recipe from the August 2012 edition of Food & Wine magazine. It was quick to prepare and we loved the grilled bread with herbed butter that accompanied the dish.

Halibut and Corn Hobo Packs with Herbed Butter

Chives and tarragon are fantastic with both corn and fish. Here, Grace Parisi folds the herbs into softened butter and grills them with a mix of corn and halibut in a foil hobo pack.

1. 1/4 cup snipped chives
2. 2 tablespoons tarragon leaves
3. 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
4. Salt
5. Freshly ground white pepper
6. 2 ears of corn, kernels cut from the cobs
7. 4 large shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and caps thinly sliced
8. 4 skinless halibut fillets (6 ounces each)
9. 8 baguette slices, cut on the diagonal

1. In a mini food processor, pulse the chives and tarragon leaves until chopped. Add the butter and a pinch each of salt and white pepper and pulse just until the butter is bright green with flecks of herbs. Transfer the herb butter to a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a log. Freeze for about 5 minutes, until the butter is slightly firm. Cut the butter into 16 pieces.
2. Arrange four 12-inch sheets of heavy-duty foil on a work surface and spray evenly with vegetable oil spray. In a medium bowl, toss the corn with the shiitake and season with salt and pepper. Mound the mixture in the center of the foil sheets and top each mound with a piece of the herb butter. Top with the halibut fillets and another piece of the herb butter and season with salt and pepper. Fold up the foil on all sides and pinch the seams to seal.
3. Light a grill. Place the foil packets on the grill, close the lid and cook over high heat until the fish is cooked through and the mushrooms are tender, 8 to 10 minutes; let the packets rest for 2 minutes.
4. Grill the baguette slices for 2 minutes, turning once. Top with the remaining herb butter, allowing it to melt. Open the packets and serve the fish and vegetables with the baguette toasts.

Make Ahead The herb butter can be wrapped in plastic and frozen for up to 1 month.

Chicken or Turkey Scallopini Recipe

Thank you Dawn for sharing this go to & easy recipe for a classic Italian dish.

Scaloppine:

• 1 and 1/2 or 2 pounds of boneless chicken or turkey breast
• 1/4 flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 and 1/2 cups small mushrooms halved
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic, pressed
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 tablespoon minced parsley

Place chicken breast in freezer for 45 minutes to 1 hour until surface of meat is thoroughly chilled and slightly firm. Cut meat crosswise in 1/4 inch slices.

Mix flour, salt, paprika and white pepper together. Flour chicken, shake off excess. Heat 1 tablespoon butter and oil in large skillet. Add layer of chicken and brown lightly on both sides. As meat is browned, remove and keep warm. Brown remaining slices, adding butter and oil as needed. When all chicken in browned and removed from skillet, add mushrooms and garlic. Saute lightly.

Return browned chicken to skills. In a bowl, combine wine, lemon juice, Italian seasonings and parsley; stir. Pour over the chicken & mushrooms in skillet and simmer rapidly for 5 to 10 minutes until the liquid is reduced and chicken tender.

Dawn's notes on this dish:

(This recipe is) one of my favorite go-to weeknight meals.  I have my butcher pound out the boneless chicken breasts ahead of time into large cutlets. I’m not a big veal or turkey fan but I’m sure it’s just as good.  I use crimini mushrooms.  This gets adjusted all the time based on what’s growing in my garden – Italian seasoning can be oregano, basil, garlic, parsley – whatever you have.  Dried is fine too.

Robert sometimes adds cayenne for a little kick.  I always put extra parsley on top.  The sauce is super yummy and I usually serve with haricot-verts and Israeli couscous or rice pilaf.  Takes less than an hour.  I almost never eat Italian out - I laugh when I see $25+ for an entrée of piccata, scallopine, oreganata, francese.  They are so simple to make and the base is the same for us.  They are our weeknight staples. 

Stuffed Chicken Breast with Vodka Sauce

From the February 27, 2012 edition of People Magazine, here's Wolfgang Puck's easy chicken recipe. We tried it and loved it!

Ingredients:

• 4 (8oz) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 4 slices prosciutto
• 4 slices provolone cheese
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 tbsp white wine
• Kosher salt
• black pepper
• 1 and 1/2 cups vodka sauce
• 4 tbsp breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp melted butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Pound chicken to 1/4 inch thickness and season with salt and pepper.
Place 1 slice of prosciutto and 1 slice of provolone on each breast. Roll up like a jelly roll and secure with bamboo skewer or string.
Whisk together olive oil, red pepper flakes, rosemary, wine, salt, pepper and vodka sauce.
Pour sauce mixture into bottom of oven safe baking dish. Place chicken on top of sauce.
Melt butter and mix with bread crumbs - sprinkle mixture over chicken.
Cover with parchment paper and then with aluminum foil.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

What we did differently: I used dried rosemary instead of fresh and we used Barilla Three Cheese Fromagerie red sauce instead of vodka since that's what we had on hand. We served this over angel hair pasta with roasted asparagus on the side and it was excellent!!

Crab Cakes

I love making crab cakes. They're pretty easy and they're super yummy. We like to serve these with lemon wedges, wasabi mayo and tartar sauce. I've been using the recipe from Phillip's because it's by far the one with the highest crab to breading filling. This one is 90% crab, 10% filling. So use quality crab meat!

1 lbs crab meat (I get premium lump from Wegmans)
1 egg
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp dry mustard
2 tbsp mayo (we use olive oil mayo)
1 tsp lemon juice (always better to use fresh squeezed)
1 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp Phillips or Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I use Italian flavored)

Combine all of the ingredients except for the crab into a glass mixing bowl and whisk or mix vigorously until well blended. Drain the crab meat and fold into the mixture. The original recipe calls for gently incorporating the crab without breaking the pieces. I actually prefer to break the lumps into smaller pieces - it packs nicer into the cakes and cooks more evenly. Once blended, use your hands and form your cakes. This recipe will make six large cakes. They can be made a few hours ahead of time and refrigerated until you're going to cook them, but don't do the day before. They turn into mush if you let them sit for too long before cooking.

In a large saute pan add a thin layer of oil (I use canola) to coat the entire bottom of the pan. I go to about 1/4 inch depth or less. Heat the oil up over medium high to high heat until your oil is nice and hot. Cook the cakes in the oil until wonderfully golden brown - turning them only once in the process. Put onto paper towels when removing to drain off some of the extra oil.

Serve with normal crab cake accompaniments - lemon, cocktail or tartar sauce and our favorite, wasabi mayo. If you have leftovers, Alan suggests reheating in the oven or toaster oven to keep them from getting mushy. Enjoy!