To kill time, I opened up a bottle of New Zealand Pinot Noir and started on dinner. Since it's Lent and I can't eat meat on Fridays, I bought some scallops to make for dinner.
Inspired to make something new but still healthy, I decided on scallops with mango-avocado salsa and a side salad of spinach, strawberries, and goat cheese.
This dish turned out so beautifully! I couldn't be happier!
Ingredients (makes 2 servings)
Mango-Avocado Salsa
1 mango
1 avocado
1/4 red onion
1/2 lime
season with salt
Scallops
10-12 medium sized Dry Scallops
season wit salt and pepper
You definitely want to get DRY scallops, not wet. You will actually get more for your money with dry scallops as wet scallops are... well wet. Not only are they full of water, but the extra moisture will prevent them from getting that nice brown color on the outside when you cook them in the pan.
I started with the salsa and cut up my mango, avocado, and red onion. Depending on how you want your salsa to taste you can play with the ratio of your ingredients (add more mango if you want it sweeter, more avocado if you more creamy, etc.). I did equal portions of avocado and mango with a little less red onion, seasoned it with some salt, and added the juice of half a lime. Gently mix your ingredients together. To preserve the texture of your ingredients mix with a light hand. You don't want to mash it together like you would a guacamole. Set your salsa aside to let all the flavors meld together.
I put together my salad next, but I won't go into how to make it since it's just spinach, cut up strawberries and crumbled goat cheese. I dressed my salad with balsamic vinegar, but waited until right before I was ready to eat so it didn't get all soggy.
Scallops are ridiculously quick and easy to make. I like eating my scallops in as natural a state as possible, so I just seasoned both sides with some salt and pepper. I heated my stainless pan on high heat and added some olive oil. You can tell when the oil is ready because it will look ripply in the pan when you move it around.
Remember when I said cooking scallops was quick? Place your scallops in the pan one-by-one starting at the 12 o'clock position and working your way around. This makes it easy to remember which you put in first. Don't play with them when you put them in but wait until you have a nice brown crust before you flip them over. Depending on how thick your scallops are, you're looking at 1.5-2 minutes on each side and they're ready!!
Put a few spoonfuls of salsa on the plate to act as bed for your scallops, put some more on top, and you're ready to eat!!
