Wednesday, August 13, 2008

What's Cooking Wednesday: Scallops Wrapped in Proscuitto with Balsamic Peaches in Mango Sauce



Please go to Shan's place for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

So, this week we have the lovely M visiting us. M is our Swedish daughter - the fourth of our five, former exchange students.


C and M at Dairy Queen

It's always a delight to see M in so many ways, but one thing she and I definitely share is a love of cooking and a love of using fresh ingredients (um, despite her love of DQ).

M also loves to wander our gourmet markets and get to do some "sampling". She arrived on Saturday, our prime local sample day, and we wandered through Whole Foods. It was a pretty funny wander, because I was telling her that Whole Foods makes awesome guacamole (one of her favorite foods), and voila, there was a sample! Then we rounded the corner to the meat/fish area, and there were scallops on sample (scallops are her absolute favorites). When we went to the baking area, the sample was carrot cake, one of her favorite desserts. Certainly, someone had tipped Whole Foods off that M was coming to town!

We both went ga-ga over the scallops. They were huge sea scallops, wrapped in proscuitto, and served with slices of peaches. We decided we wanted to make these for Monday night's dinner - the night before M would have to return to Sweden.

Monday afternoon we went back to Whole Foods to buy the sea scallops. We asked the fish monger for the recipe of the sample that was showcased the previous Saturday. Well, it turns out there was no recipe - these were special marinated skewers. Since the skewers were an outrageous price per pound, and since we like to cook together anyway, we bought the plain scallops, and the fish monger kindly printed out the ingredients label for the skewers so we could reconstruct the dish.

Except we had a long, busy day, forgot marinades, didn't read the label properly, etc., etc., and the end result turned out to be even better. Love it when that happens.


So here's M and my version of:

Scallops Wrapped in Proscuitto with Balsamic Peaches in Mango Sauce




Ingredients:

12 large dry sea scallops (you have to ask for dry because otherwise the scallops might be brined and won't taste as good)
1 package of proscuitto (we used Citterio)
3 fresh pieces
6 sprigs of rosemary
1 small handful of fresh basil, cut into strips (chiffonade)
2 TBS good balsamic vinegar
1 - 2 TBS olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of mango juice blend (odwalla or equiv - we used Trader Joe's Mango Juice)

Directions:

1. Peel and slice peaches and toss with basil and balsamic vinegar. Let marinate while you do everything else.
2. Rinse, dry and pepper scallops (I didn't use salt due to the proscuitto).
3. Tear each slice of proscuitto into two strips as best you can (this won't be perfect). Wrap each scallop in the proscuitto.
4. Heat 1 - 2 TBS of olive oil over medium high heat (on the lower end of medium high) in a large nonstick pan.
5. When oil is heated, use tongs to place all the scallops in the pan to brown. Spread the sprigs of rosemary on top, like this:



6. Brown for 2 - 3 minutes depending on the thickness of the scallops, then remove the sprigs of rosemary, turn the scallops over with the tongs, and brown the other side. When you've flipped the scallops, add in the peaches and vinegar, like this:



7. After browning for another couple of minutes, remove the scallops to a plate, and continue cooking the peaches, vinegar, basil and rosemary, until the peaches are caramelized.
8. Scrape peaches from the bottom of the pan, add scallops back in, and pour the mango juice over all. Cover and cook for another 2 - 4 minutes, depending on thickness of the scallops.
9. Remove scallops from pan to a serving platter, pour peaches and sauce over all, and remove the rosemary sprigs.

Serves 4.

We served our scallops with Scaletta Green Bean Salad and corn on the cob.

Smaklig MÃ¥ltid! ("Bon Appetit" in Swedish)

32 comments:

Marianne Arkins said...

Looks YUMMY. I love scallops...

How wonderful that M. is visiting you :-)

anno said...

Oh my! This looks fabulous! With the prosciutto, I might even be able to sneak these past my meat & potatos guy...

Goofball said...

oh wow wow , I must cook this for Jan. He loves scallops and he loves mango ...(so do I).


Or I should give him the recipe to prepare it for me as he's the better cook in the house :p.
tough dilemma



Aaaaah DQ brings back so many memories. I love DQ ...I don't remember the food (except their soup....pretty weird to remember soup at DQ no?) but I remember hanging our there :p

Goofball said...

3 fresh pieces = 3 fresh peaches? if not I am missing an ingredient

Korie said...

First of all, YUM!!
That looks so good. And ditto to what Goofball says, I think I'll show this to Hans and make him cook it.

Oh and that's really cool, the Swedish. In Dutch the equivalent of Bon Appetit is "smaakelijk" and the word for meal/meal time is maaltijd.
It's almost identical looking.

Dru said...

That looks good.

Sarabeth said...

That looks great. What a neat thing to do with a visitor.

painted maypole said...

love that sort of thing - when it turns out even better

C looks like a great kid (and hey, love his shirt! i just put a magnet on my car and my hubby said "are you trying to get me fired?" ;)

thailandchani said...

As always, it looks wonderful! Yum! :)

~*

Virtualsprite said...

Oh, my mouth is watering!!!!! I should know better than to stop by here before lunch. :-)

cathouse teri said...

So cool! I am totally Swedish! :)

Anonymous said...

Oh baby! You got me at the title!

Sister Sassy said...

I've never had Scallops, but you made me want to eat them :) YUM!

Funny about Whole Foods, she looks like she's enjoying her DQ too (as does C)

like his shirt ;)

Jenn in Holland said...

Mmmm... It all looks yummy and clearly, I need to go shopping when M is in town. Seems like she is very good luck at the samples stands!

glamah16 said...

Dry scallops! Thats why I never have success cooking them at home. They always turn watery and Icant get that sear going. M looks so pretty. Its so nice to see young people enjoy cooking and not look at it as dated, non progressive or a chore. Great dish.

Jen said...

Marianne, it was really lovely having her there. Now she's home though... sigh...

I'll tell you Anno, even C pronounced it "edible" so I think you have a chance there. ;-)

Goofball, we really enjoyed it. It was a nice contrast of flavors. And this DQ is only ice cream... there are some DQs that serve food and some just the ice cream part.

And Lilac and Goofball - YES, fresh peaches... I'd better fix that

Jen said...

Dru, it's pretty darned easy.

Sarabeth, M is more like family than a visitor, which is part of the reason this works. ;-)

PM - C IS a great kid (if I say so myself, lol). His aunt gave him the shirt. We also have bling on our lawn, my car, etc., etc. I guess we're outed, so to speak. ;-)

Thanks, Chani and Virtual!

Teri, is that your background? Your pic looks like it could be.

And look, CG - no tomatoes! ;-)

Jen said...

Sassy... scallops are kind of hard to describe. They're rich in taste and texture. A little like lobster, maybe? And yes, C loves DQ, too!

Jenn, she lives closer to you than to me, so maybe you can drag her with you on a market trip one of these days. ;-)

Glamah, I just found that trick about asking for the dry scallops myself. They worked wonderfully. Actually, too, M (Swedish daughter), S (German daughter), H (Armenian daughter) and K (Danish son) all love to cook, as do many of my students. Maybe it will make a comeback! My only exchange student who didn't love cooking was my Japanese daughter (unless it involved cookie dough or a traditional dish that she was showing us). ;-)

Karen Olson said...

I'm very hungry now! This is what I get for reading this before supper!

Looks like you and M are having a fabulous time together, and I LOVE your T-shirt...I just got one myself!

Unknown said...

Okay, no fair! I'm sitting at work with nary a sausage to eat. Damn, that looks good!

Jen said...

Karen, actually, that was my son, C, in the picture with M. I love the t-shirt too, though.

Greg - sorry about that! I hope you're home and well-fed now.

Unknown said...

Just wanted to stop by and say hello to a fellow WCW-ite. Those scallops look AMAZING. I need to make these.

Momisodes said...

Prosciutto and scallops? Oh my heaven! I can only imagine how yummy that was. I love that you put photos of the different stages. And thank you for the link to the green bean salad!

Anonymous said...

I love scallops and am always looking for new ways to cook them. I never thought of pairing them with proscuitto before. Excellent!

I made it through the lean years of law school by filling up on the samples at Sam's.

Anonymous said...

You have the BEST recipes. You've hit some of my food-favorites with this one (Proscuitto is a top ten food around here).

Jen said...

City Girl - thanks for stopping by! I'll be checking you out, too - I'm behind right now as I'm away visiting my mom.

Sandy, I would think in Boston, the ingredients to this wouldn't be hard.

Dingo, I hadn't thought of them, either, but it sure worked!

Thanks so much, Amy! I was happy that C actually ate them, too (picky eater of the universe).

Thistlemoon said...

WOWZA! Those looks awesome, Jen! I am so copying this recipe for later! I am so glad that you and M had such a wonderful time! I wish I had a Whole Foods near by - I love sample day!

Jen said...

Jenn - did Bread and Circus become Whole Foods in the Northampton/Amherst area? Our Whole Foods is an extravaganza, but it also lost the small, local flavor. And we definitely lucked out with that recipe!

Anonymous said...

I love scallops, though I've never made them. I always have them at restaurants. This dish sounds so good, though.

I love C's hair, by the way.

Jen said...

Hey Leslie! C's really enjoying his hair, too. I'm happy with it as long as he keeps it clean (I know, TMI). Scallops are amazingly easy to make.

Anonymous said...

Holy cow! Do you cook like this EVERY night? I'm impressed!

I've been trying to talk Mr.4444 into taking in an exchange student, but he isn't interested. Our son did bring two Spanish boys home for a weekend from summer camp last month, and we all really enjoyed their company. I'll keep working on him!

Jen said...

half-past - No, I sure don't! ;-) We don't have the budget nor the time, but it was great fun. See if you can get Mr. 4444 to try it as an arrival family - there is a desperate need this year, and you'd only be committed for a few weeks. You can contact www.yfu.org to find out how to do this. I just got a notice this morning about how they really need arrival families!