Scallops two different ways; Christmas cooking!!

Yes it is that time of the year again!! Time to do christmas test cooking!! I love doing that. It’s always something that you can – technically – do the whole year, but for christmas you do pick other dishes, more festive and well, whatever the outcome it gives you an excuse to do some extra cooking. I mean; why else would you make two different scallop dishes on a regular saturday afternoon, right? I already told you we will be going for a pre-christmas dinner with friends on the 18th of december. In addition to that we have friends coming over on christmas eve, then the 25th we go to my brother in law and his wife and celebrate with Tom’s family (his parents will be there too), then the 26th my parents will be coming over to our place for a small christmas dinner for four. The “real” cooking will be done on the 26th when my parents are coming over, but we will be doing some small appetizers both on the 24th and 25th. On the 24th we will be having a stonegrill evening, so that will be relaxing and no cooking required fun.

And so while we have some sort of snowblizzard here today and temperatures that are well below zero C it was the perfect time to do some cooking. Just a bit unfortunately that we had to go out first to do the necessary grocery shopping..lol… We decided to walk but we could hardly see as the snow was blowing relentlessly into our eyes. But we made it to the fishmonger and the supermarket in one piece… Plus we had our exercise for the day as well.

Both dishes are very easy to make and both are perfect for a Christmas starter (or any type of starter really). My favorite was the first dish with the prosciutto while Tom liked the one with the peas more. Haha… It’s our first test so we could end up doing something entirely different… So dad, if you’re reading this; don’t expect ANY of these dishes to end up on your plate on christmas day! And why are you reading this anyway?? It’s supposed to be a surprise!!

So on to the important part; the recipe…. Here they are! The first is taken from the BBC Good food website (which has tons of great recipes!) and the second one is from the book Cooking for two which I received last year from the Daring Kitchen and have loved since…

Prosciutto-wrapped scallops with lemon & parsley butter(source: BBC Good Food)

24 cherry tomatoes on the vine
24 small scallops , cleaned
12 slices prosciutto , each cut into 2
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 tbsp butter
2 garlic cloves , finely chopped
1 lemon , juiced and zested
a small bunch flat-leaf parsley , finely chopped


Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Arrange the tomatoes on a baking tray and season. Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven and set aside. Reduce the heat to 120C/fan 100C/gas 1/2.
Put one scallop on each piece of prosciutto, roll up tightly and secure with a toothpick. Heat a frying pan until very hot. Add the olive oil and sear the scallops until the prosciutto is browned and crisp on both sides. Keep warm in the oven while searing the rest.
Add the butter and garlic to the pan and cook for 2 minutes on a low heat. Add the lemon rind and juice and heat through. Add the parsley. Serve the scallops with the tomatoes and the garlic butter drizzled over.

Seared scallops on a bed of fresh english pea and mint puree (source :Cooking for Two)

2 cups of fresh or frozen english peas (No idea if English peas would be different from regular peas, but I’m guessing not!)
2 tbsp of coarsely chooped fresh mint
1 cove of garlic, coarsely chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper
3 tbsp of butter
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
large pinch of paprika
12 large sea scallops

Fill a small saucepan with a couple of inches of water. Bring to a boil, add the peas and cook until tender, about 3-5 minutes for fresh peas, about 1 minute for frozen peas. Place the peas in a blender and add the mint, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Blend until smooth. Place the pea puree in the saucepan to keep warm.

In a medium heavy saute pan (preferably cast iron) heat the butter over medium-high heat. Add the lemon juice and paprika. When the butter begins to foam, add the scallops. Cook for 2 minutes per side or until just cooked through and each side is golden to amber brown on top.

Spoon the pea puree into two shallow soup dishes, creating a bed, then place the seared scallops on top and serve.