Scallops - Baked, Not Knitted

Kaethe asked for the scallop recipe. The actual official recipe, as given to me by my brother will have to wait until I am at home, as it is there and I am not. But this recipe seems infinitely adaptable and adjustable (my favorite kind of recipe) and here's what I do:

Oven-Roasted Scallops With Capellini - The Unofficial Version

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a baking dish (I use a 9x13 baking pan), combine:

• 6 T. olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine (though I'm wondering now if red wouldn't work just as well)
• 1 lb. of scallops (if they're huge, I cut 'em in half)

Now here's where I get creative. I throw any combination of the following in:

• 1/2 lb. shrimp (peeled and deveined - the recipe just calls for scallops but I think the shrimp improved it a lot, and even though Mr. Pointy Sticks isn't wild about shrimp, I am, so I think I'll keep doing this)
• 1 jalapeno pepper, diced up (the recipe calls for a chipotle pepper and the first time I made this I couldn't find any so used a jalapeno - and only one because we're not so much about the spicy - I abstained from the spicy totally on Saturday)
• 2 peppers (green, red or yellow - one red and one yellow is pretty) cut into thin strips
• garlic, onion or shallots - Saturday I used about 3 decent sized shallots and Janet and I agreed it needed more)
• mushrooms (Wegman's sells trays that are mixed portabello, shitake and something else - I've thrown in one or two of these - didn't on Saturday because Janet isn't crazy about them)
• snow peas - washed and trimmed and cut into strips (say, four strips from each pod - a good big handful of these)

Mix this all up with some salt and pepper and throw it in the oven for fifteen minutes or so. Start the water boiling for the capellini when you throw this in the oven and it should be done about the time the scallops are. If the scallops have to sit for a few minutes, it won't kill them. Serve the capellini with a good slather of the scallop mixture thrown on top. Yum.

I think I will add some butter next time. The sauce is rather thin...I think (and Janet agreed) that some added butter might give the sauce a little more substance.

And, if possible, use dry scallops. I'd never heard of dry scallops until my brother explained to me that most scallops are injected or soaked in some sort of solution that keeps them fresher a bit longer and keeps them moister. Dry scallops don't undergo that process so they don't leak out lots of yucky liquid when they cooked. If you've ever tried to fry up scallops but just had them cook in a puddle of liquid and never get brown...those were not dry scallops. Fortunately, all the scallops Wegman's sells are dry.

Current Reading

I read Last Night at the Lobster today...such a slim little book. I really, really liked it. I've never worked in a restaurant so I don't know for sure, but man, all the details sure felt right. And I just really loved Manny, paying such attention to all the details, even as his job and restaurant disappear. It's one of those books where some might say nothing really happens but it just contains a little world.

Last night I finished The Geographer's Library, which I liked up until the last quarter or so. Maybe it was because I was looking forward to The Lobster, but it just sort of lost its momentum and fizzled out.