Happy Thursday You Cute Cookies of The Smoke!!!!!!!!
My beef with scallops is that they are ALWAYS over cooked and rubbery and tough/dried out, unless served as sashimi and thus raw, at the sushi bar.
Also, ever since a fishmonger took me back behind the counter and showed me how the scallops soak in a saline solution to "plump them up" before being put in the display to sell, I wasn't at all interested.
But with a love of raw scallops, (the Pike Place Fish Folk in Seattle used to call me "Raw Scallop Eating Girl From New Hampshire," as I would insist on buying a raw scallop to eat right there, while waiting for my fish order to be cut/wrapped when living in the Northwest etc.), I jumped at today's opportunity to get some all natural, nothing added, wild caught scallops from nearby Maine.
AND, I felt that by EVER SO LIGHTLY or BARELY smoking them (almost as if a "cold smoke" but truth be told, it was simply more of just, "smoking in the cold"), the result would be really perfect! And it was!!!!
Please enjoy my dinner from today!
Cheers!!!!!!! - Leah
I mopped the scallops through grapeseed oil (I know, I know, I do the same thing every day - TRUE BE THAT - but love my simpleton way of eating, so kindly just humor me if this is boring you...) smiles...
I put pistachio shells (our new replacement instead of smoking chips, thanks to Knuckle47 on this site, who forever shall be a hero because of this) into my little gas smoker, along with a Madagascar vanilla bean...
The smell this yields when smoking is INCREDIBLE!!!!
And from the moment the lid went on and the machine was started, to the moment the lid was removed and the scallops brought in, was 6 minutes. (High heat).
Meanwhile, I whisked apple cider vinegar and my beloved Greek olive oil.
(Note to foodies: For years I did buy Frantoia unfiltered oil from Sicily, and all kinds of delicious and muddy pricy oils, until I got into the Greek oils, and found the flavor could not even compare)!!!
For a fraction of the price, a better and more flavorful oil is procured!!!
AMAZING! A Gift from the Gods! Indeed!
And I boiled a huge pot of black rice, and got some raw spinach leaves together, and some chopped yellow pepper and chopped fresh shallot...
And I assembled this "mix" (still simple, healthful, non-fussy) and poured my whisked potion over it all, and added freshly ground black pepper and red Hawaiian sea salt, and this was DELIGHTFUL!!!
The pistachio-vanilla essence WAS INDEED in the food and so beautifully so, but the scallops were like BABY FOOD, or BABY SOFT, (exquisite), and melted apart in the mouth - raw inside - (perfect) yet with a smoky and crisper edge, subtle as it be, on the outside...
The smell was downright hypnotic!!!
Alas, I have found a way to enjoy scallops - all natural wild caught without added junk - and to not have them be overcooked and thus little rubbery and ruined things.
DELICIOUS!
I am excited to do this again, and the exact same time and way and so it goes. WON-DER-FUL!!!!!
Happy Thursday to YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! Make it delicious!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers!!!!!!! - Leah
My beef with scallops is that they are ALWAYS over cooked and rubbery and tough/dried out, unless served as sashimi and thus raw, at the sushi bar.
Also, ever since a fishmonger took me back behind the counter and showed me how the scallops soak in a saline solution to "plump them up" before being put in the display to sell, I wasn't at all interested.
But with a love of raw scallops, (the Pike Place Fish Folk in Seattle used to call me "Raw Scallop Eating Girl From New Hampshire," as I would insist on buying a raw scallop to eat right there, while waiting for my fish order to be cut/wrapped when living in the Northwest etc.), I jumped at today's opportunity to get some all natural, nothing added, wild caught scallops from nearby Maine.
AND, I felt that by EVER SO LIGHTLY or BARELY smoking them (almost as if a "cold smoke" but truth be told, it was simply more of just, "smoking in the cold"), the result would be really perfect! And it was!!!!
Please enjoy my dinner from today!
Cheers!!!!!!! - Leah
I mopped the scallops through grapeseed oil (I know, I know, I do the same thing every day - TRUE BE THAT - but love my simpleton way of eating, so kindly just humor me if this is boring you...) smiles...
I put pistachio shells (our new replacement instead of smoking chips, thanks to Knuckle47 on this site, who forever shall be a hero because of this) into my little gas smoker, along with a Madagascar vanilla bean...
The smell this yields when smoking is INCREDIBLE!!!!
And from the moment the lid went on and the machine was started, to the moment the lid was removed and the scallops brought in, was 6 minutes. (High heat).
Meanwhile, I whisked apple cider vinegar and my beloved Greek olive oil.
(Note to foodies: For years I did buy Frantoia unfiltered oil from Sicily, and all kinds of delicious and muddy pricy oils, until I got into the Greek oils, and found the flavor could not even compare)!!!
For a fraction of the price, a better and more flavorful oil is procured!!!
AMAZING! A Gift from the Gods! Indeed!
And I boiled a huge pot of black rice, and got some raw spinach leaves together, and some chopped yellow pepper and chopped fresh shallot...
And I assembled this "mix" (still simple, healthful, non-fussy) and poured my whisked potion over it all, and added freshly ground black pepper and red Hawaiian sea salt, and this was DELIGHTFUL!!!
The pistachio-vanilla essence WAS INDEED in the food and so beautifully so, but the scallops were like BABY FOOD, or BABY SOFT, (exquisite), and melted apart in the mouth - raw inside - (perfect) yet with a smoky and crisper edge, subtle as it be, on the outside...
The smell was downright hypnotic!!!
Alas, I have found a way to enjoy scallops - all natural wild caught without added junk - and to not have them be overcooked and thus little rubbery and ruined things.
DELICIOUS!
I am excited to do this again, and the exact same time and way and so it goes. WON-DER-FUL!!!!!
Happy Thursday to YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! Make it delicious!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers!!!!!!! - Leah
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