Pan-Seared Sea Scallops with Pea Purée and Prosciutto Bits

Pan-Seared Sea Scallops with Pea Purée and Prosciutto Bits

If you've ever watched an episode of Hell's Kitchen, you've probably seen Chef Ramsay scream at a contestant for improperly cooked scallops. I shyed away from cooking them for a long time because I heard they were easily overcooked.

One day at the supermarket, I finally got the courage to purchase them after I saw they were at a reasonable price. Also, I had recently ate scallops at a local restaurant but was a little disappointed and I wondered if I could prepare them better.

The Challenge

Properly prepare a scallops dish at home using a fine dining presentation.

The Source

I took inspiration from a recipe I found from an Australian cooking show, My Kitchen Rules, but with a few substitutions. First, I substituted the prosciutto crumbs for a simpler prosciutto bits recipe which can be found on page 25 of Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking by Michael Chiarello with Janet Fletcher, using a portion of the prosciutto my friends brought me the afternoon I served my crab ravioli dish. In addition, I substituted a pea purée for the parsnip purée. The recipe is courtesy of Chef Robert Dasalla, executive chef and co-owner of Little Chef Counter in the San Pedro Market Square of San Jose, California.

Ingredients

For the proscuitto:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces prosciutto, preferably from the shank, finely minced or ground on medium

For the pea purée:
2 cups English peas (frozen or fresh)
1 stick butter
1 sprig tarragon
2 tablspoons water if using fresh peas
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

For the scallops:
1 pound sea scallops
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Make the prosciutto bits: Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the prosciutto and cook, stirring. The proscuitto should emit steam, as it's releasing it's moisture. Once the proscuitto starts to sizzle, reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally until the prosciutto are crisp, up to thirty minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with several layers of paper towels.

2. While the prosciutto is crisping, prepare the pea purée. In a saucepan combine the peas, butter and tarragon and cook covered and set on high. Check every 5 minutes until the peas tender.

Once tender remove the tarragon sprig but leaving any loose leaves. Strain and save the liquid.

Add peas to a blender and begin to purée and gradually add the saved liquid until smooth. Discard any remaining liquid or if more liquid is needed add olive oil. Add olive oil to the purée to give it a shine. Taste and season if needed. Pass the purée through a Chinois or a fine mesh strainer for a more refined appearance.

3. Cook the scallops: Pat the scallops dry and season them on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat butter and oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add scallops and cook for 1 minute on each side. To plate, spoon the purée across the plate, top with the scallops, then garnish with the prosciutto.

Successful?

In all honesty, I was happier with the prosciutto and the peas than I was with the scallops, as I added the butter to hot oil (instead of melting the butter in the oil), so the scallops didn't sear the way I would have preferred. A contributing factor in this was I used frozen scallops. Mrs. Stuntman was very pleased with this dish and, in fact, has requested I prepare it again.

Light Stunt: Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

One of my goals in 2013 will be to start a monthly series where I publish a dish suitable for weeknight dinners: quick but flavorful. (Think Rachael Ray, only not as easy on the eyes but better food) I'll call it Light Stunts.

To kick off this series, my original plan for this dish was to film me preparing it during halftime of the NFC Divisional playoff game this upcoming Saturday, which is a span of 12 minutes. I was going to start halftime with my salted pasta water at a rolling boil and a completed mise en place, with the challenge to serve the dish by the start of the third quarter. This was going to be a dry run, so I didn't take pictures along the way.

I saw this dish in Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking, and again in America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook Third Edition. So when I was thumbing through Lidia's Favorite Recipes by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianicn Manuali, it finally sunk in that this dish is a staple in Italy, but why hadn't this dish become more familiar to Americans?

The Challenge

Successfully complete a dish from start to finish during halftime of an NFL game.

The Source

Adapted from page 52 of Lidia's Favorite Recipes by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali.

Ingredients

Kosher salt, to taste
1 pound spaghetti
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
10 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano

Method

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the spaghetti and cook, stirring frequently until the pasta is tender but still very firm, about 6 minutes.

2. While the pasta is boiling, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until pale golden, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add the red pepper flakes. Add about 1 1/2 cups boiling pasta water into the sauce, then the parsley, remaining olive oil and salt to taste. Bring the mixture to a boil.

3. When the pasta has cooked, drain. Then add to the sauce in the skillet, bringing to a simmer and tossing to coat the pasta with the sauce, cooking for about 1 minute. Remove from heat and toss the pasta with the grated cheese. Taste and add salt and/or red pepper to taste, if necessary. Serve immediately in warmed bowls.

Successful?

As I plated the dish, I noticed my stopwatch. I had started once I dropped my pasta in the water and started to heat my olive oil in my skillet which reported approximately 19 minutes. From this standpoint, I was not successful. However, my mise en place took ten minutes to complete so it would be perfect for a weeknight because it can be easily prepared within an hour.

As I sautéed my garlic, Mrs. Stuntman came into the kitchen asking what smelled so good. We were pleasantly surprised because the simple preparation of the dish yielded incredible flavor. This leads me back to my original question: Why aren't American's more familiar with this dish?

Herbed Speckled Crab Ravioli with a Lemon Butter Drizzle

Herb Speckled Crab Ravioli with a Lemon Butter Drizzle

Happy New Year!

This past Sunday afternoon I hosted lunch for some friends I hadn't seen in a while as an early New Year's celebration. I would call them foodies, knowing they've eaten at some of the best restaurants here in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I knew I had to bring my A-Game.

I had been planning this dish for more than a year when I was doing some research for my prior 'fresh pasta from scratch' dish which appeared on my last website. I wanted to get the basics down before I started to experiment, however I wanted to visit pasta from scratch again eventually. I needed a way to elevate my skill set from my last attempt. I hope you agree that I have found one.

The Challenge

Successfully prepare a more complex fresh pasta dish.

The Source

I've put together this dish from several sources. I took the pasta ingredients from about.com, but the pasta dough instructions were borrowed heavily from Chef Tomm Johnson of The International Culinary Center. His YouTube demonstration can be seen here. I adopted the crab filling from Tasty Adventures in addition to the sauce from Martha Stewart.

Ingredients

For the pasta dough:
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, finely minced
5 eggs
1 pinch kosher salt

For the filling:
1 cup fresh crab meat
1 shallot, finely minced
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh basil, finely chopped

For the drizzle:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh basil, cut into a chiffonade
freshly grated Parmesan

Method

1. Prepare the filling: Combine all the filling ingredients in a medium bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Make the pasta dough: On a clean, flat work surface (I find a deep cookie sheet works well), place the flour in a mound and make a well in the center so the flour resembles a volcano. Add the salt in the well. In a separate bowl, combine 4 eggs and parsley and add to the well.

Stir the wet ingredients into the flour gradually. Once combined, knead the dough until both the inside and outside of the dough is tacky but not sticky, using more flour when necessary, about 8 to 15 minutes. Once finished, wrap in cellophane and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Roll the dough: After the dough has rested, remove from refrigerator and cut the dough into 4 equal size portions. Cover three of the four portions and flatten the remaining portion to 1/2 inch thick. Pass the portion through the widest setting of a pasta roller. Then fold the dough into thirds and pass it through the pasta roller again at it's widest setting with the folds perpendicular to the roller. Repeat this once more for a total of three passes through the widest setting. Then pass the dough through the roller once at increasingly smaller settings. (I have an Atlas pasta machine with six settings and went to the fifth one.) Repeat the process with the remaining three dough portions.

4. Make the ravioli: I purchased a ravioli press to construct my ravioli in this manner. If one isn't available, lay a sheet of pasta onto a flat surface and spoon out one-half teaspoon full of the ravioli filling one inch apart and one inch from the edge of the pasta sheet, two-by-two if possible. Whisk the remaining egg in a small bowl brush the egg in between each mound of filling. Lay a second pasta sheet over the first one and press down in between the filling, being careful not to puncture holes in the pasta sheet but pushing out as much air as possible. If not using immediately, make a bed of flour on a sheet pan and freeze the ravioli on the flour. Once frozen, transfer the ravioli to a resealable bag.

5. Finish the dish: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the ravioli and cook until they float to the top. Meanwhile, melt the butter over medium heat in a large skillet until the butter foams but before it browns. Add in the cooked ravioli and 2 tablespoons of pasta water, lemon juice and lemon zest. Swirl to combine and transfer the ravioli to a bowl. Drizzle with the sauce, garnish with basil, and shower with some freshly grated parmesan. Serve immediately.

Successful?

Just barely. I finally met my match with this dish because of the problems I had throughout. My pasta dough kept tearing when I fed it through the roller at the widest setting. Once I got that issue resolved, I tried to use my ravioli press but kept puncturing holes in the pasta sheets once I layed the first sheet of pasta over the press. Ultimately, what I ended up doing was a hybrid of the two methods in step 4 above: cutting out individual raviolo and shaping each one individually in the press for a uniform size.

I made the dough Friday night and allocated about two hours to roll out the dough and make the ravioli Saturday afternoon. As I was into my sixth hour on Saturday evening with Mrs. Stuntman seeing my frustration growing, I suggested she start looking at take-out menus for dinner. My laborious efforts yielded less than twenty ravioli, however I only used half of the ravioli dough. I was too tired to continue. Because of this, I halved the ingredients in the drizzle which resulted in a muted lemon flavor.

In the end, the effort was well worth it. My friends appreciated the pasta from scratch (not fully knowing my struggles with it) and Mrs. Stuntman said it was her favorite tasting dish I've prepared to date, especially since crab is one of her favorite seafoods. Crab also makes the filling seasonal.

I'm actually thankful for my troubles with this dish because it is what I set out to do when I started this website: make food that is challenging for the home cook. Look for more challenging dishes in 2013. In fact, I already have ideas for my next pasta from scratch dish, elevating my game once again.