Pan-Seared Scallop with Spaghetti Squash

I usually decide what to cook, based on what I am craving for, or what is best available in the market. Today's recipe is made with kind of both...

I wanted to have some nice scallop dish - simply seared scallops with brown butter sauce, garnished with some citrus. So, I went to my fish monger to see if they have good scallops. On the way to the fish monger, I had to pass farmer's market, and AGAIN, all these beautiful vegetables were calling me, "cook me! cook me! you don't need scallops! just cook me!" I had to focus to get to my fish monger. I already cooked too much vegetables recently due to these strange whispers at farmer's market, and I didn't want to end up cooking another vegetable dish tonight.

However, when I saw an organic spaghetti squash, I couldn't keep walking to the fish monger anymore. I thought about how the sweetness and a bit of spiciness from the spaghetti squash would be a good pair with sweet scallops. Also, the texture will be a good addition to the dish as well. So, I grabbed the yellow spaghetti squash.

And... here is today's dish, "Pan-Seared Scallop with Spaghetti Squash"! Hope you like it.

Pan-Seared Scallop with Spaghetti Squash
(Yield: 2 servings / Cooking time: 45 minutes)

Ingredients:
+ 4 large dry* scallops
+ one small-medium size spaghetti squash
+ 1/2 lemon
+ 1/2 lime
+ one small shallot, finely diced
+ one sun-dried tomatoes (preserved in olive oil), slice into thin strips
+ 1 tsp of caper
+ 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
+ olive oil
+ neutral oil (such as grape seed oil or canola oil)
+ salt and pepper
+ a pinch of grated nutmeg
+ (optional) micro greens for garnish**

* 'Dry' doesn't mean de-hydrated in this context. You should check the label if the scallops are "dry" or "wet" from seafood market. Wet scallops are soaked in liquid solution which makes the scallops weigh more and gives more shelf time. These liquid soaked scallops are hard to sear due to high water contents. Bottom line: always buy dry scallops if available.

** I used baby swiss chard. The bright red stripes on the herb will add color to the dish.




Procedures:
1. First, preheat your oven at 400°F (205°C). While waiting for the oven, finely dice shallot, and segment lemon and lime, and dice the segments into about 1cm^3 dice. (to see how to make citrus segments, please click here.) Also, clean the scallops – sometimes the scallops has muscle attached at the edge. Gently remove the muscle.


2. Halve the spaghetti squash, and drizzle olive oil on each side. Season with salt and pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. Roast in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until it is cooked.


3. While the spaghetti squash is cooking in the oven, sweat finely diced shallot with some olive oil. Add thinly sliced sun-dried tomato strips into the pan, and sweat together. Turn off the heat, and set aside.


4. When the squash is cooked through, take it out from the oven. Scoop out the seed, and shred the flesh into "spaghetti". The picture below is after I shredded the flesh and scooped out most of them.


5. Add the squash "spaghetti" strips to the pan where shallot and sun-dried tomatoes are, and gently saute them together just until all the ingredients are mixed. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat, and set aside.


6. Now, cook the scallops. Season the scallops with salt and pepper, both sides. Heat your pan with high heat, and add neutral oil and when the pan is very hot. After the oil is heated (2-3 seconds), add scallops to the pan. Once the bottoms turn golden brown, flip the scallops and sear the other sides also until the surfaces become golden brown. Please do not flip the scallops more than once.


7. As soon the scallops are done, take them out of the pan, and wipe your pan with dried paper towel. Add 2 Tbsp of butter to the pan and let the butter brown, BUT NOT BURNT!. Add capers and wait until they pop and become crispy. Turn off the heat and add lemon and lime dice, and swirl the pan. Please try to maintain the "dice" shapes of citrus as much as possible. If the pan was too hot when you add citrus, the lemon and lime might disintegrate and lose the shape. This is your brown butter-citrus sauce for the scallops.


8. Slice the scallops in half horizontally, so you can get thin eight scallop slices.

9. Place the spaghetti squash on the bottom of plate, and top the squash with four slices of scallops. Spoon the lemon-lime brown butter sauce on top. Garnish with some baby swiss chard.