Caramelized Scallops with Smoked Chili Cream

This sounds fancy. It's not. While it presents like it took great effort to prepare, it doesn't. This was about the easiest dish I've prepared in a while, and the "effort" was worth it! This recipe of Caramelized Scallops with Smoked Chili Cream hails from a cookbook that I'm rather partial to... The Black Dog Summer on the Vineyard Cookbook (as in Martha's Vineyard). Hubby has a cousin who lives there with his lovely wife, so we've been fortunate enough to visit the Vineyard many times.

If you're looking for a new cookbook, this would be one to consider. I've loved everything I've made from this cookbook. Aside from being delicious and unique recipes, the names of some of the recipes are quirky too (read quirky and not Rachael Ray silly). Things like "Double Bypass" (an egg dish) and "Sirloin Tips Quasimodo" (hidden qualities within) are included in the collection. I've prepared a lot of seafood, but the cookbook contains recipes for chicken and other meats as well as side dishes and desserts too. The Blueberry Bread Pudding has me intrigued! So if you're interested in taking a peek at the cookbook, you can check it out through the link below. If anything, it's fascinating to read about the history of the Black Dog Tavern- as you've surely seen someone somewhere in the world wearing the infamous Black Dog t-shirt. We're quite obsessed with Black Dog memorabilia around our house with Black Dog t-shirts, coffee mugs, aprons, baseball hats, a Black Dog stuffed animal and even a Black Dog children's book!

Purchasing the cookbook through the Amazon link below throws me (literally) a few pennies referral bonus... just enough to secure an extra pump of vanilla syrup to go with my weekly Sugar Free Decaf Nonfat 5 pump vanilla latte. Seriously!



Back to the recipes... The scallops are simple to caramelize. With a sprinkle of salt, pepper and fresh parsley and fried in a little bit of oil, the scallops caramelize easily with their naturally present sugars. The chili cream is basic... sour cream mixed with chipotle powder, lime juice and salt. Not spicy. At the Black Dog restaurant, they serve these scallops on Potato-Scallion Pancakes so I decided to give those a shot.



Glad I did. These were YUUUUUUUUMY and a unique side dish as well. I set my husband on the task of shredding the unpeeled red potatoes (along with his fingers!) Those were squeezed dry (the potatoes, minus the fingers) and mixed with scallions, flour, eggs, salt and pepper. Really easy. Really good.


I chose to serve the scallops on a bed of arugula, drizzled with the chili cream and a garnish of lemon squeezes alongside the potato pancake, which was quite delicious dunked in the chili cream too! I give thanks to the folks at the Black Dog for publishing a recipe that made my 6 year old fall in love with scallops. Funny but true... he actually raved about them. And they weren't even batter-fried. Go figure. My little foodie son likes scallops. Now that's pretty cool.

All of this... and I'm not even truly that big of a fan of scallops. But I just might have to modify my seafood preferences after making this one.

The scallops recipe can be found HERE.
The potato pancakes recipe can be found HERE.

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