Mmmmm.... SCALLOPS!

Another recipe night with the grill upstate, but I'm pretty sure this meal can translate into an urban kitchen as well. It was a simple salad, but awesome and well-worthy of a summer dinner-- but especially--SO simple! 

Ingredients: (for two)
-6 or 8 fresh scallops
-1/2 ripe avocado 
-1/2 pink grapefruit 
-2 or 3 cups of arugula or mache or whatever yummy leafy greens you fancy
-1 T. lemon juice
-2 T. white wine vinegar
-1/2 T. dijon mustard
-4 T. olive oil (2 T. olive oil to toss the scallops in, 2 T. for the dressing)
-salt & pepper


Directions: (As relayed by John)
Start by prepping your salad, so that once your scallops are cooked, you're ready to serve everything right away. Remarkably, I found instructions online for an almost identical salad, and they detail cutting a pink grapefruit with far more precision than I could possibly provide, so let's defer to that source for the first part of this recipe: 


Rinse and dry your mache - set aside.

Take your grapefruit, and using a serrated knife, slice off each end so that just a little pink is showing. Set the grapefruit on a flat side and begin slicing off the skin vertically - you should be going around the grapefruit and removing the skin and membrane to show nice juicy grapefruit segments.

Once you have all the skin and pith removed - segment each grapefruit slice by taking your serrated knife and cutting into the grapefruit just between the fruit and the membrane separating the segments. You will have a nice membrane free segment of grapefruit. Do this until all the fruit is freed. Squeeze the juice out of the remaining membrane into a small bowl.

Remove the pit from your avocado half, then cut the avocado into 1/8 inch thick slices, and use a large spoon to delicately remove the slices from the skin. Sprinkle the slices with reserved grapefruit juice to keep from browning.

Assemble your salad before you start cooking... Plate greens, add your slices of avocado, grape fruit segments, and now, to make your vinaigrette:


Whisk together the mustard, lemon juice, white wine vinegar,  any remaining grapefruit juice, salt & pepper, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a small bowl. Set this aside, and turn your attention to the scallops... 


John started by rinsing the scallops, patting them dry, tossing the scallops in olive oil and a crack of salt & pepper, and then let them sit in the fridge for about 15 minutes. Once he had them sitting in the fridge, he started up the grill, put our grill pan onto the BBQ, and got it nice and hot-- "as hot as it can possibly get". If you were cooking this without access to a grill, John recommends using a cast iron skillet, and getting it "crazy hot" on the stove top. Place your scallops flat side down on the pan. Watch them carefully - when they start to turn opaque about half way up their sides - test one to see if it is nicely golden (this should take about 3-5 minutes). If it looks nice and golden, flip them all over and brown them on the other side. Once both sides are nicely browned, and the inside is thoroughly opaque, remove from the pan and place them right onto the salad. Drizzle with your vinaigrette and  you're ready to go! 


Dinner is served!