We had to postpone Michael's birthday dinner last weekend for several different reasons, but yesterday was the birthday dinner day. We set off for Buford Highway Farmer's Market bright and early [about 11] to find goodies and hopefully buy some of the regular groceries.
Michael loves two things from his native country: kvass and halvah. We bought some of those items as part of his birthday.
Kvass tastes like spoiled beer and old motor oil to me, but it's a cultural aquired taste, obviously. (We buy the non-alcoholic kind.) Halvah is made primarily from sunflower seeds and sugar. Again, not yummy to me, but whatever. All Russian kids love halvah, in my experience.
We also bought some huge sea scallops. Mike loves scallops, like his grandmother. I like them
We have learned, over the years, that grit hides in most scallops and there is only one way to remove it: soak it in water. I put the scallops in a bowl and rinse them about 3-4 times. The first rinse, the water is always really milky colored, if that tells you something.
Most times, scallops you buy in the grocery store have been plumped up with injections of water, so when you cook them they shrink a lot. [Boo, hiss, booo....] These scallops were much better.
After soaking the scallops, I dried them on paper towels. Each scallop was still plump, about 2-3 bites per scallop.
To cook them, I simply melted some butter in a skillet - in this case Kerrygold Irish butter, because it was on sale at the market. It's richer and has a better flavor than most American butters. Another good choice is Plugra.
I minced two big fat cloves of garlic and swirled it around in the butter, and added sea salt and good pepper. I cooked the scallops on low, 5 minutes each side.
That's all it took.
Right before serving I squeezed fresh lime juice on each scallop.
Simple, easy, delicious. Really easy to make. Mother and Michael both said they were the best scallops I'd ever made.
We had also bought some wonderful Syrian bread at the market, and I finally cooked up the big zucchini, roasted in the overn. Yum!
