NOT a birthday party…

We had invited Mary Jo, Greg and Sophie over for Greg’s XX  Birthday but were told that Greg doesn’t really like celebrating stuff. He enjoys celebrating in general, just not celebrating stuff.

So Traci ordered a cake that said “Just a cake”, and Andrew and Sophie each got to blow out a candle. We also cooked up a very tasty supper. I had asked my friend Scott for a recipe he mentioned in his blog, that said he knew how to do pan seared scallops really well. He sent me that recipe and we were on our way to an amazing feast. I borrowed Poppop’s cast iron pan to do the searing, as the recipe recommended it.      

Here is the Recipe as I received it.

Seared Scallops: Recipe provided by Garrison Ale House in Fredericton New Brunswick
(Scott's suggestions / comments are in brackets)
Really hot pan - smoking. (used a cast iron pan)
Use Canola, olive oil burns. (seasoned the pan with finely cracked fresh pepper)
Once pan is blistering hot, cook scallops one side, (set aside) and deglaze pan (keep liquid aside).
Deglaze with Amaretto or tequila and lime (I used wine and will try tequila and lime next time)
Get pan smoking again.
Sear the other side of the scallops.
Cook to medium rare (center of the scallop, as viewed from the side looks opaque)
A note on the scallops: We used the largest ones we could find. They were frozen. I thawed them well in advance and strained off all the moisture. Try not to wash them with running water to thaw them, it washes away much of the flavour. Let them thaw on their own in a strainer. Just before cooking, I patted them dry with a paper towel. Scallops were almost room temperature before they hit the pan.

I made a couple changes. The biggest one was adding Giant Tiger Prawns to the searing pan… wow did those turn out good. The other change was using a Mandarin Liqueur for the deglazing and then tossing the scallops and Shrimp in the pan after searing the second side to coat with the reduction. Oh boy was it good.

The meal was fantastic. We did boneless Ribeye steaks on the BBQ that were salt and peppered, brushed with a BBQ roasted garlic and olive oil infusion, and seasoned with a sprig of Rosemary during the BBQ process, drizzled with a nice Béarnaise sauce, THEN topped with the scallops and Prawns.  The whole thing was topped off with twice baked potatoes, mashed with sour cream, butter, fresh chives, salt and pepper, and fresh grated parmesan cheese, topped with paprika and more parmesan. Just before putting the potatoes  in the oven we brushed them lightly with melted butter so they would bake to a golden brown.  Just for good measure we had fresh carrots with garlic butter and a nice bowl of greens.

We purchased the seafood from the North Sea Fish Market and the steaks came from the butchers counter at Safeway. It was ALL incredible.

We took our time at the table as it was so good. We always have plenty of laughs and good conversation with Mary Jo and Greg. We have been having nice visits with them for a number years now, but tonight was the first night that Andrew and Sophie were able to really play together. It really made a pleasant difference in our evening as the kids entertained themselves for the most part. Andrew had a great sleep too, as they ran and ran and ran for the better part of 3 hours.

They are both saying CHEESE!

All in all we had a super visit, and hopefully it wont be 3 months before the next visit.

Pic of the day - To top the night off, we got to witness an AMAZING sky!