Scallops en Casserole

I am starting this post with the lovely cover art of the cookbook involved in this recipe. As with most casseroles, this dinner was many good things, but photogenic was not one of them!

We had picked up Scallops: A New England Coastal Cookbook some while ago in New Bedford, where these things are decided. Elaine Tammi and Karin A. Tammi have written not just a cookbook, but a celebration that honors the work and heritage.

As regular readers of this blog will know, we have taken full advantage of being able to spend our weekends alongside the country's leading fishing port. New Bedford's string of 19 years of leading the nation in fishing revenue has equally to do with the hard work of its mariners and the high value of its scallops. My year-round rowing adventures include keeping a careful eye for the ships that are bringing in that catch or heading out for more, rain or shine, by sunlight or moonlight or lamplight.

We enjoy buying those scallops at Kyler's catch (cars in front, trucks to the side, boats out back), where the seafood is FRESH and the staff incredibly knowledgeable. If we go to Kyler's with a recipe for something that is not available -- because it is not available locally -- they will help us find a local alternative. We have prepared those scallops in a variety of ways, mostly on the stovetop and mostly with few other ingredients, because the delicate flavor and texture of the precious scallops should be primary. So as much as I have enjoyed browsing Scallops, we had not yet found something both novel and simple enough to try.

Until yesterday -- local friends who were raised in coastal Connecticut were coming over for dinner, and I decided to dare trying something new with people who really know their seafood. I have eaten scallop casseroles of various kinds before, but this would be the first one I would prepare myself -- from page 300.

BUT WAIT: Back up a bit. Before doing anything with the scallops, I started roasting potatoes, because this is yummy but takes a long time. I cut small red potatoes (with very thin skins) into quarters and tossed them with olive oil, pepper, Old Bay, and a few other spices. I put these in the oven at 400 so they would have at least a half-hour lead on the seafood.

I did venture three modifications to the recipe: I added a shallot and I used sea scallops instead of the tiny bay scallops. I am loathe to part ways with the expert authors, but bay scallops overcook so easily that I did not want to risk baking them into little balls of rubber. The third modification is the topping -- I bought thinly sliced almonds and further chopped them before toasting them with butter in a cast-iron skillet. This was to avoid the buttered breadcrumbs in the recipe, which I enjoy but my sweetheart does not -- especially when I overdo them, which I always do.

I started with melting butter to saute portobello mushrooms, scallions, and shallots. When they were all softened, I thoroughly stirred in two tablespoons flour and then slowly added a cup of white wine a dash of lemon juice, two pounds of trimmed scallops and a bit of fresh parsley. I melted butter in a casserole dish and spread this mixture into it, after just a minute or so of simmering. I then topped them with the toasted almond crumbs.

I baked this for 20 minutes, and the result was disappointing at first: it looked like soup. I gave it an additional 15 -- which seemed way too long, but necessary. I then realized that although a bit soupy (perhaps because of the shallot), the "soup" was thickened, and a few minutes of rest would allow it to rethicken. This turned out to be correct, and the result was unanimously declared delicious. It paired well with the roasted potatoes and of course with some local white wines.

Thank the mariners!
Photo: (The incomparable) Peter Pereira, N.B. Standard-Times

Two-ingredient cream cheese pancakes (aka "scrambled crepes")

James usually makes us waffles on the weekend, but this Saturday we decided that our big project would be cleaning up our yard after a wind storm blew a tree onto our backyard shed. A friend had posted this recipe on Facebook last week and since we had the two ingredients necessary (cream cheese and eggs) to make these pancakes I told James I would make this super-simple breakfast instead. I used about twice as much cream cheese than called for (4 ounces), but stuck with the same number of eggs (2). It still didn't really make much batter. I put the two ingredients into the blender and mixed them well, then poured the batter directly into my hot skillet. I attempted to make two pancakes to start, which only meant that I ended up with two "first pancakes". They looked more like scrambled eggs than pancakes. I made two more that wound up a bit more pancake shaped, and then that was it for the batter. I decided not to take pictures of this less-than-appetizing looking meal. If you click the link above you'll see what they were supposed to look like, but mine did not turn out in the crepe-like manner depicted at all. We each ate one "first pancake" and one "second pancake" topped with jam and powdered sugar. They weren't bad, but not worth making again. In the future I will either eat scrambled eggs or pancakes.

More blueberries

We had more blueberries than we needed for the salmon recipe I made earlier in the weekend so I got out Granny's Muffin House Cookbook and found a a recipe to use them up.

We had breakfast-for-dinner on Monday, so these made for a nice pre-dinner snack, and a dessert, too.

I really should make better use of this cookbook. 

Salmon and Blueberries

We took Friday off to turn the three-day holiday weekend into a four-day mini vacation at the beach house. Friday's dinner was a salmon recipe we found on the New York Times cooking page.  It wouldn't have occurred to me to put blueberries on salmon, but this was delicious. The blueberries were cooked in a sauce made with honey, shallots, white wine, and vinegar. The recipe called for white wine vinegar, but I happened to have blueberry vinegar from Lebherz Oil and Vinegar Emporium in my cupboard so I used that instead. We baked the fish a bit longer than the recipe calls for - after 10 minutes it still seemed way to undercooked, so we left it in the oven for a few minutes. This looked and tasted great with a lot of colors, textures, and flavors.

Although we cooked with white wine, it paired nicely with a Malbec. We will definitely have this again.

Chicken Paprikash on Noodles

Still on my own until tonight when James returns from Costa Rica, last night I used a single chicken breast to make a variation of this recipe from the New York Times Cooking page. The only significant change I made was that I didn't include the red and green peppers.

This was easy and relatively quick (the 30 minutes indicated on the recipe page was exactly accurate). It was filling, tasty, and also made enough for me to have the leftovers for dinner this evening.

Stir fry with chicken and peanuts

Our child had some friends over at the beach house while visiting for Christmas. They made a meal featuring rice noodles, but didn't use them all. This New York Times recipe then appeared on my Facebook feed, and since I also had some peanuts, and still had some chives (from when I made the Dutch Baby) at the beach house it felt like kismet.

The recipe calls for ground chicken, but I had a boneless skinless breast, so I diced it up and adapted the recipe accordingly. I was also bereft of sesame oil and used olive oil instead. I added some peas just because it seemed like it needed something green. It was rather simple, and a fine, filling meal that wasn't too much work for one person.

Two Skillet dishes from New York Times Cooking

The days between Christmas and New Year's Day are slow-paced for us, and generally a time to relax. We spent a few days at our near-the-beach house and took some time to try some new dishes. Normally when we are at the beach house we have waffles for breakfast, but since we were there for four days we didn't want them all four mornings. James made them for the first two, and then I was in charge of breakfast. I found this recipe for Dutch Baby with Bacon and Runny Camembert from the New York Times Cooking pages. I don't think we'd ever had Camembert cheese before, and apparently no one at the deli counter at our local grocery store had ever even heard of it. James googled it and discovered that it was a type of brie, so he started looking around where the brie was located. This method worked and he brought home a nice 8 oz. wheel, just like the recipe called for. I followed the recipe pretty closely, with the exception that I only used seven eggs instead of eight, since that was all I had. This was both visually appealing, and really tasty. It made enough for the both of the remaining breakfasts.

The second recipe I tried was an easy skillet dinner Cheesy Spicy Black Bean Bake. This was quick and only the skillet was needed, no additional pots, pans, or bowls.

Spicy pairs well with sparkling, so we enjoyed a bottle of Blancs de Noirs from Westport Rivers Winery with this.