Scallops with Passion Fruit

Many years ago, I went to Nougatine with my parents and had lobster with passion tagliatelle.  Man it was delicious. The other day I bought a passion fruit– and waited for weeks as it ripened- apparently they are ripe when they get old and wrinkly looking.  With that Nougatine dish in mind, I set out to apply the passion fruit to the much less labor intensive scallops. This whole dish took about 5 minutes to make. No joke. You could serve with some braised greens or asparagus maybe- but I as I was lazy, I thought I’d put it against the peppery bite of some fresh arugula- just tossed with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh lemon juice

Passion Fruit vinaigrette– The great thing about the internet (ha!) is that if you have something like passion fruit scallops in mind- somewhere you can find it.  This was adapted from a blog- I had never had seen before- called the Taste of Beirut.
Olive oil- yikes I am a terrible blogger because I don’t remember how much I used- and she didn’t specify but I believe it was 1/8 of a cup- so let’s go with that.
1 passion fruit
Salt, pepper, and sugar

I really like her phrasing in the directions— so I am going to post them verbatim:
Grab a serrated knife and cut the passion fruits in two. Scoop out the flesh (including the seeds) into a bowl. Using your taste as a guide, add some sugar, salt, pepper and olive oil and whip to emulsify.
I would say i started out w. a sizable pinch of each spice- and kept adding on from there. If you are sure what she is talking about when she says whip to emulsify is– you basically whisk together your passion fruit and spices, and slowly add the oil- continuously whisking as you do so- that way the oil incorporates with the other ingredients.

Scallops
I decided to take my scallop cooking advice from Alton Brown- they often talk on various food network shows about getting “a good sear” on your scallops- so I thought this technical chef would have some good advice.

1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
scallops (I was only making three. The original recipe is for 1 to 1 1/4 pounds of scallops- approx 16– and doubles amounts above to 2 tsp each- so adjust accordingly)
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper

Alton’s first step is to remove the small side muscle from the scallops- and I will admit, I am not sure what this means– I think maybe I bought them with it removed? Anyone? But continuing on…  rinse with cold water and thoroughly pat dry.

Add the butter and oil to a saute pan- you want to use something like stainless steel- i would not go non-stick because then you won’t get a good sear. Salt and pepper the scallops. Once the fat begins to smoke, gently add the scallops, making sure they are not touching each other. Sear the scallops for 1 1/2 minutes on each side. The scallops should have a 1/4-inch golden crust on each side while still being translucent in the center. Serve immediately.

So I put them on top of my dressed arugula. Drizzled w. the passion fruit vinaigrette. Yum. Fancy looking and easy.

Best Baked Salmon

While we are on the subject of fish–I only recently started to like salmon. So I decide to try my favorite tofu marinade on a piece of salmon. I was making one small fillet, so I halved the recipe on that post and added a teaspoon of dijon mustard and a teaspoon of olive oil.  Let the fish sit in the marinade for about 15 mins before cooking.  I baked at 425, for about 10-12 mins (the thicker the fillet, the more time it takes). Mine was perfect at 11 mins.

Tags: passion fruit, scallops with passion fruit, seared scallops