Scallops and Broccoli

Our adult kid Harvey has become quite good at finding gifts for us that connect to our interests, such as rare nautical prints that are at once unfamiliar and immediately fitting for our home. They came through again this Christmas, with the Bruce Beck's 1989 Official Fulton Fish Market Cookbook.

This is our kind of cookbook -- rich in cultural context, in this case relating to the New York institution whose name appears on this cookbook and no other. The book also has sea-creature illustrations that relate to Harvey's own interest in animal-related illustration art.

With the famous scallops of New Bedford just a few blocks away, we decided -- as readers of this space know we often do -- to look for a new way to prepare these buttery mollusks. We have tried many variations on creme sauces, so I decided to try something a bit different. I found one of those recipes for which assembling the ingredient list gets the cook most of the way through the cooking process.

Click to enlarge

Since I was determined to serve this with Malbec and we did not have any white cooking wine open, I decided to substitute ginger brandy for the wine (this was whisked together with the salt and sugar in a small bowl). For the chili oil, of course, I used chipotle-infused olive oil from our friends at Lebherz. 

I do not exactly avoid broccoli recipes, but I tend to find something else when broccoli presents itself. Since the rest of the family was ready to embrace this healthy option, however, I did, too. I blanched the broccoli as instructed, meaning I put it in boiling water for just under a minute and then drained it and plunged it into cold water. I then left it in a colander until the rest was ready. The broccoli emerged crisp but not too crunchy -- just right for me!

I then heated plenty of salted water, to which I added the linguini once I had everything else prepared. I had never trimmed scallops in the way described here, but I will from now on. I then sauteed the scallops in oil for just a minute, then the broccoli for another couple before adding wine mixture. I then drained the linguine and tossed it with the scallop mixture; we did not add soy sauce at the table as suggested, and we did not miss it.

This was delicious, and on the light side since it had no cheese or butter. It was scrumptious as leftovers.