LadyMin's Garden

This is a quick and easy recipe that I like to use when I want fresh fish but don’t have a lot of time to cook. The recipe comes from an article titled The Beauty of Brown Butter by Kathy Hunt.

Add a salad and some steamed vegetables and you have a tasty meal in less than half an hour. Plus scallops are an excellent source of B-12, magnesium, potassium and omega-3 fatty acids.

I cut back on the amount of butter sauce I made as half the recipe was enough for me for this amount of scallops.

Ingredients:

• 1½ pounds large sea scallops
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons balsemic vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper

Preparation:
Using a small saucepan, melt the butter chunks over medium-low to medium heat, swirling the pan over the heat. Continue cooking and swirling the pan. The butter will foam and then slowly settle. At this point the butter should be turning a golden color with specks of brown forming. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Place the olive oil in a large frying or saute pan and heat on medium high until the oil is smoking. Place several scallops in the pan and cook 2 minutes on each side. The scallops should be browned. Sprinkle fresh ground pepper on top of each and then remove them from the pan and place on a plate. Follow the same steps to sear the remaining scallops.

Before serving the scallops, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of vinegar and the salt to the brown butter. Stir together and taste for seasoning, adding the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar if necessary. Place the scallops on plates and drizzle the sauce over each scallop. Serve immediately. Serves 4