Seared Sea Scallop with Braised Endive and Buerre Blanc

Note:
"Whoops! I meant to post this earlier, obviously. Sorry, I was internet free for a week, but here it is anyway. Heck, when is it not a good time for a romantic meal?"-

With Valentine's Day approaching I thought this would make a lovely and romantic start to a meal.

Quarter 3 endives. Place them cut side down in a sauté pan with a good size lump of butter (1 tbsp?) salt and pepper (preferably white pepper) pour in a little chicken broth or water, just enough to make it about ¼ inch deep. Bring to a boil reduce heat to simmer and cover pan. Cook like this for around 5 minutes then uncover and turn up heat to let all the water evaporate and the side facing down on the pan to brown. Set aside on stove. This will keep it somewhat warm.

Make buerre blanc.
You can follow these instructions- http://video.about.com/frenchfood/Beurre-Blanc.htm
Set this aside on a back burner to keep warm.

Sear scallops. To do this use a non stick pan. Scallops are close to %100 protein which makes them very sticky. Add a little oil and a little butter to the pan. Get the pan very hot, almost smoking. Salt and pepper the scallops and then gently place in the pan and let them be( you can turn the heat down to med-high if it’s going too fast). Do not move them for several minutes. Once they have a nice brown crust on them turn them over and turn off the heat. They will cook through nicely with just the heat left in the pan.
On a plate fan out three pieces of endive. Arrange scallops. Gently with a spoon pour in buerre blanc around the scallops. Garnish with chives. (You can also place a small spoonful of caviar on the scallops)

Rum Punch

Winter got cha down? Yeah, no kidding. Me too. Here's a little ray of sunshine for you in a glass. Pour yourself one of these, turn the heat up and pretend you're in the tropics. Put one part rum, preferably a dark one like Mt. Gay or our personal favorite Ron del Barralito and two parts tropical juice over ice. Obviously you can adjust this to taste but you should be able to taste the rum. The Dole Paradise Blend works great as the juice for this. Another good one is the Ceres juice I used in the Sparkling Passion drink. Squeeze a wedge of fresh lime in the drink. The lime is key. You can try this with a few drops of bitters too.

Marscapone and Berries

Here an incredibly simple to make dessert that tastes and looks great. The flavor is similar to cheese cake but a little lighter like a mousse. Simply mix together marscapone cheese with a drop of vanilla and some powdered sugar. I leave the amount to you depending on how sweet you like it. When everything is mixed together and the texture is smooth either pipe it or spoon it into a cocktail or wine glass. Top it off with a mix of fresh berries and sift a little bit of powdered sugar over the top. Garnish with a mint leaf.

Guacamole

As requested by my friend over at Chandelier -http://www.chandelierevents.blogspot.com/ a kick ass party planning blog.

The secret to great guacamole is keep it simple and don't over work it. You want it to be fresh, sparkly and for the natural flavors to shine.

Open and scoop out 3 avocados into a bowl. As finely as you can chop up half of an onion and a small garlic clove. Chop in a fine dice one tomato, seeds removed. Chop up, not too finely though, enough fresh cilantro to make somewhere between 1 to 2 tablespoons. Using a fork mash the avocados up a bit, but don't go crazy, you want it to be chunky and not a smooth puree. Add in the other ingredients except the cilantro. Once everything is mixed together squeeze in the juice from a half of a lime. Now add some cilantro and salt and begin tasting and adding more until you think it is properly seasoned. This is a personal thing so the amounts will vary from person to person. I will say that I find it takes a little more salt than you might think, but don't over do it since the chips you serve it with will also likely be salty.
If you like your guacamole spicy then open and remove seeds from a fresh jalapeno. It's a good idea to use gloves when working with spicy peppers because the oils which are the source of the spice are hard to get off your hands. Chop it up really finely and add it last, slowly, tasting and testing until you reach the level of spice you like. Remember that as the gaucamole sits the jalapenos will continue to leech off more spicy oils and make the dip get spicier so best to stop a little before it reaches the level you want if it will be sitting around a while.
Guacamole is something that is best when made, served, and consumed in one sitting, but if you want to make it ahead by a few hours you can save the pits from the avocados and place them in the dip to keep it fresh when in the fridge.

Split Pea and Ham Soup

I'm back in business with a brand new laptop. Sorry for so much delay but I've got several posts ready to go for the coming week. Here's a little start, just right for the cold weather we have right now.

This is so easy and plenty hearty enough for a dinner when served with some good bread.
Chop finely ½ onion, 2 carrots, 1 large stalk of celery. Cook in a pot with a tablespoon or two of olive oil over medium low heat with salt and pepper. You want the vegetables to get soft but not brown. Rub the leaves of one sprig of rosemary into the pot and add 1 to 2 cups of chopped up ham, depending on how ham-y you like it. Pour in about ½ a cup of beer or white wine and let it boil and cook a couple minutes then pour in one package of dry split green peas and enough chicken stock or water to double the volume. It will take at least that much liquid, but probably more so check back on the soup while it’s cooking and simply add more water if it seems too thick. Now just let it simmer. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper toward the end of the cooking time because the ham will add a certain amount of saltiness. I think ours took about an hour and a half to fully cook.
You can skip the ham and stock for a vegetarian version. Do exactly the same with lentils for lentil soup.

Sorry to be gone so long

Sorry for the lag on the posts. My laptop died on me and took with it my photos and a couple recipes I had ready to go. I hope to be up and running again by next week at the latest.

Sparkling Passion

Hello Everyone and Happy Holidays! In honor of the holiday season I’m offering up a cocktail with a little fizz, just perfect for New Year’s Eve (or anytime for that matter!)
Simply add one part vodka to one part passion fruit juice and shake over ice. Pour into a cocktail glass leaving a bit of room. Top off with some champagne, just enough to get it a little fizzy. We added a raspberry for decoration.

This brand, Ceres, makes a nice passion fruit juice and is what I would recommend the most. If you can’t find this a good substitute would be Dole juices Paradise Blend, but I would add less juice since this one is sweeter and more concentrated. You can find it with other refrigerated juices.

If you don't have cocktail glasses a champagne flute would work as well.

I’m going to attempt individual Beef Wellingtons for New Year’s Eve. Obviously, I won’t be able to post them before NYE but if they come out nicely I'll put them up here and perhaps they’d be good for Valentine’s Day.

ENJOY!!