We were both in the mood for scallops last night. I wanted to try something different and I have had rhubarb on the brain. Scallops are very sweet by nature; I thought it might be interesting to make a rhubarb purée, sweetened enough to tame its extremely tart nature, while still maintaining sufficient tartness for counterpoint. I cleaned the rhubarb and removed the stringy fibers from the outside. The rhubarb was cut into a small dice for quick and even cooking. I sautéed the rhubarb, along with some jalapeno, in clarified butter. Once the rhubarb was tender, I added some fresh squeezed orange juice, orange zest and castor sugar. After some brief simmering, I adjusted the sugar level. The rhubarb was not tart and not quite sweet either with just a wee bit of tang from the jalapeno. The scallops were rinsed, trimmed of anything that wasn’t abductor muscle, and carefully dried. The scallops received a little sea salt and black/cayenne pepper mix (Penzey’s Black and Red) and then on to the grill for some quick cooking. The scallops were then plated with some sauce, a small bunch of greens, plus orange segments drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar. Tasty.
Plusses:
1) The rhubarb was very successful. It paired beautifully with the scallops, complementing and not overcoming. This is a repeat item.
Deltas:
1) I have to deal with the resulting color. Rhubarb cooked as described above has…err…a color that is less than appetizing. Back to the drawing board on color (really not a big challenge, just thought it was funny to have not thought of this. The rest of the plate was really pretty).
2) Non-culinary delta: Have to figure out what is suddenly wrong with my digital camera. I cannot transfer the pics I took. Ugh.