Scallops & Asparagus from the market, Flagship cheese from Beecher’s (last Sunday’s Dinner)

After Sunday morning racquetball, we wandered in the strangely warm, snowing afternoon through Pike Place Market and designed a dinner for the night.  This is one of the most relaxing and rewarding kinds of afternoons for me. 

First, a piroshky from Piroshky, Piroshky…DELICIOUS.  I had potato, onion, cheese.  Matt had beef and cheese I think.  They were both delish, but the potato is still our favorite.  It is really dangerous having this right down the street from the gym…we’ll have to start trying other walking lunches from the market one of these days.

We decided we wanted to try cooking scallops, since all we had done before was bay scallops in fried rice.  We are relatively new fans of scallops, so I did some internet searching for a basic recipe.  I found this one, which I used as inspiration. Mushrooms are not on either of our favorites lists, so we decided to go with the basic scallop method and make the rest more suitable for us.  I have made a delicious side of peas in the past, with diced onions and a bit of cream, so we planned for that, but then we saw some gorgeous, thin-stalked asparagus from a market vendor.  It had been a while since either of us had asparagus, so we went for it.  We wandered over to one of the fish vendors and picked up 4 average-sized sea scallops for just over $6 and we also got some Flagship cheese from Beecher’s Handmade Cheese on our way to the car.

This really could only end well.

Matt made a side, using the Beecher’s and some grits we had on hand, along with a little thyme.

I had a handful of shallots left from our last CSA box, so I sliced them thinly in place of onions, knowing they would be super sweet and mild cooked down. They cooked down in a bit of olive oil until they were nice and soft, but not caramelized.  I spread them along the pan and placed my washed, trimmed asparagus tips on top (I didn’t want them to be directly in the bottom of the pan). I added water to the pan just to cover the bottom and covered the pan…this kept the steam in to cook the asparagus, but because they were on top of the layer of shallots, they didn’t get overcooked.  This stayed on low heat while I cooked the scallops. 

I used the recipe linked above, using minced garlic that I had on hand and dried thyme.  They didn’t turn out quite as pretty as his, but the apartment smelled AMAZING while they basted with the butter, garlic and thyme. 

As the scallops were finishing, I added a tablespoon or so of cream to the asparagus and shallots, removing the cover and letting it cook down. 

The grits and the sauce on the vegetables worked together really nicely with their complementary creaminess. The sweet, smooth scallops and the little bite of the garlic in their sauce complemented the sides really well.  Since there was an abundance of shallots in relation to the number of asparagus in the pan, for lunch on Monday I had a side salad with the leftover grits and creamy onions on top.  Sitting in their little Pyrex bowl all day, waiting for lunch, the cream sauce and the cheese grits came together into this amazingly satisfying, creamy indulgent accompaniment to my healthy salad!

If you happen to be someone looking for ways to cook asparagus tips, you could do this the same way, leave out the shallots or onions if you want and just sauté the fresh asparagus for just a few seconds, add a bit of broth or water to steam by covering and cooking for a few minutes, then adding a splash of cream to cook down and coat them, letting them cook until they are as soft as you want them! You could also do this without the cream and just let the broth cook down.  A touch of garlic or other herbs/spices would bump up the flavor a bit if you wanted! 

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