Sorry about the pic…that’s the best i could do in a hurry, its a serving suggestion.

It’s also an open thread, mid-week unwind, as it were.

I surprised my wife with one of her favorite dinners tonight: Scallops and Shrimp with Herbs and Baby Greens. This is a modified version of a recipe in an old Willams-Sonoma cookbook that i seem to have misplaced, so i’ll work from memory. This serves two as a main course light meal, or 4 as a side salad/starter. We like this with a California Red Wine (tonight its a 2006, Clos Du Bois, Sonoma Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon). Adapt it as you like, the herbs and tomatoes are ready for use from my deck garden.

For the salad: 4 cups of mixed baby greens like 1 cup small spinach leaves, 1 cup watercress shoots, these are easily found in any major supermarket of vegetable market, 1 cup parsley (from the garden), 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves (torn) also form the garden, 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro, 1/4 cup fresh dill sprigs. Add several cherry tomatoes as available. Please don’t use sliced tomatoes in this salad unless you must.

For the dressing: Stir in a bowl 2Tbls fresh lemon juice, dash of kosher or sea salt, pinch of ground Cayenne peppers, stir until the salt dissolves then add 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Spanish Olive oil. Stir in a handful of freshly minced chives (or a green onion), and a minced clove of garlic.

The Scallops and Shrimp: 1 pound each of scallops and medium uncooked shrimp. Bay scallops do not need to be quartered, the sea scallops will need to be quartered to be the same size as the medium shrimp. The shrimp are then , peeled, deveined, with tail on or off. I suppose crab meat or other shellfish can wok in this recipe, so go for it. It is important to not overcook the scallops or the shrimp or they will get rubbery. Tonight i used crab stock that we froze after the crab cook we had in May. So, poach the scallops and shrimp in a large heavy bottom chef’s/saucier’s pan in crab stock OR…fill that pan half full with water 1 tsp of Kosher or Sea salt, a couple bay leaves, fresh pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 5 minutes to blend the ingredients. Now, you are going to poach the scallops and the shrimp separately but the steps are identical: Add the scallops and reduce the heat to low and cover. Poach for 2 Minutes until they are just opaque, do not over cook them. Remove the scallops, put them in a bowl, raise the heat to medium low so the water starts to simmer again then add the shrimps and reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Poach for 2 Minutes until they are just opaque, do not over cook them. Remove and place in the bowl with the scallops and then add half of the dressing and mix until coated, let them cool.

Assembly: Add the remaining dressing to salad and toss to coat evenly. To plate: the greens go on the plate first with the scallops and shrimp on top. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Serve immediately with warm olive oil and pepper (or garlic) crostini, with or without a Vera Bradley ‘Frankly Scarlet’ bag as background 😉

Enjoy!