Sunday Night Supper

"Sunday night supper" connotes comfortable food that doesn't require too much work--or possibly a lighter meal because it follows a gargantuan lunch of roast beast.

Last night our supper menu was Curry-Crusted Scallops, Quinoa Tabulli, and little carrots and snow peas from the garden, followed by black raspberry/chocolate chunk ice cream.

I loved quinoa as a substitute for bulgur in my regular tabulli recipe. This was the first time I tried it. Dad grew the parsley, so this was a big success.

Here's a product endorsement especially relevant to our times: this ice cream, which is a Kroger store brand, cost $1.30 and was just as delicious as any $5 famous stuff.

Getting over Thanksgiving

Like you, I have had to overcome a mountain of calories (and, by the way, leftover gravy, due to my advance gravy binge) and get back to my true cooking roots. In this house, that means seafood, tofu, and vegetables.

Last night we had curry-seared scallops, a very quick treatment. I especially like to use this with huge scallops cut in half horizontally so they sear quickly.

Curry-Crusted Scallops

12 ounces sea scallops

1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder

Rinse scallops. Dry thoroughly on paper towels. Dredge all sides in curry powder.

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper

Heat a olive oil in a skillet and cook the scallops for 3 minutes per side. Season with salt and pepper, remove to a bowl and keep warm.

2 tablespoons apricot or other jam (I used plum)

3 tablespoons heavy cream

2 tablespoons sliced scallions

Deglaze skillet with the jam and a little water or wine. Add cream and boil briefly.

Serve sauce over scallops and garnish with scallions. I served mine with brown rice.

***

By the way, I think I should get some kind of honorary degree in Southern cooking. I made pimento cheese from scratch because I couldn't find any here. I used pickled sweet peppers from the olive bar.

Scallops and Pasta

Here's an easy way to fix scallops, especially little Bay scallops.

Toast some pine nuts, chop 1/4 cup fresh basil, and set those aside. Start the water boiling and cook the pasta.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet. Saute 1/2 red bell pepper, 1/2 green bell pepper, and 3 chopped cloves of garlic. When they are starting to get tender, add 3/4 pound of Bay scallops and continue to cook for 1 or 2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup vermouth, 1 tablespoon strong smelly fish sauce, and the juice of 1 lemon and boil hard for a minute or less until the scallops are cooked. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the pasta topped with the scallop mixture, garnished with the basil and pine nuts.

Scallop Cakes

I used bay scallops in your shrimp cake recipe, Mom, and they were amazing -- sweet and tender and delicious. And with scallops on sale for $5 a pound, they were pretty economical.

Here's the recipe as you gave it to me a few years ago. Maybe you can post the recipe for the complimentary Cilantro-Lime Mayo.

Chop coarsely in food processor (don’t purée!):

-1 pound raw shrimp, peeled (or scallops, or whatever, I suppose)

Heat:
-1 tablespoon olive oil

Sauté in olive oil until tender, about 8 minutes:
-1/2 cup finely chopped onion

Mix the following with shrimp and onion:
-2 green onions, finely chopped
-2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced
-1 tablespoon flour
-1 tablespoon lime juice
-1 teaspoon grated lime peel
-1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
-1 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon pepper
-1 egg, lightly beaten

Form into 4 or 5 patties, 1/2 inch thick. Chill one hour.

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet and brown shrimp cakes 2 minutes per side. Transfer to baking sheet and finish cooking in oven until cooked through, 7-10 minutes.

Do you still make these the same way?

Cape Cod Eating

I wish I had a picture of the counter at Chatham Fish & Lobster, with its bins of gleamingly fresh fish and shellfish--haddock, scrod, swordfish, sole, cod, tuna, salmon, bluefish! We bought and cooked scrod and haddock. Here are some of the other things we ate on the Cape and in Boston:

• Lobster-filled Ravioli in White Wine Sauce
• Crab Crepes
• Cioppino
• Smoked Salmon
• Butternut Squash and Sage-filled Ravioli topped with Duck (!)
• Shrimp Scampi
• Swordfish
• Kale, Sausage, and Lentil Soup made by Andy, absolutely delicious, to accompany the football game

Okay, I didn't order all these things myself, but I did taste them all. The most wonderful thing I had was a Fried Scallop Roll at Sir Cricket's, which perhaps you'll remember is the best fried clam joint in Orleans, near Gramp's nursing home. The scallops were large but not huge, and "fried" in this case involved only the barest whisper of coating. Of course they were served on that ridiculous soft white roll--that's a New England kink I don't quite get yet, but I'm working on it.