Quarantine Cooking – Seared Scallops and Maple Ginger Grilled Salmon

Welcome to our first #QuarantineCooking blog post! Tonight, we will be sharing with you how to make the delicious meal we had for dinner tonight – Seared scallops with maple ginger grilled salmon, sautéed squash, and steamed asparagus from our garden. Can you say yum?!

To start, we got the grill preheating while our cast iron skillet preheated over medium heat with some olive oil. While the skillet preheated, we washed and sliced our squash. Once the pan was preheated, we tossed the squash in the oil and added some salt, pepper, dried rosemary, and minced garlic. After sautéing the squash for a couple of minutes, we added a can of seasoned stewed tomatoes – we used Hunt’s stewed Italian tomatoes, but use whatever flavor profile you enjoy. We sautéed the squash for a few minutes on medium low heat for a few minutes until tender, we then covered it and turned the heat down to low to simmer while we got the salmon, scallops, and asparagus going.

We rinsed the scallops in cold water and patted them dry before tossing them with some salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Then, we made the maple ginger sauce to coat our salmon fillets in. To make the sauce we used some of our delicious maple syrup we purchased from Boyden Valley Winery while in Vermont. We found the recipe here (we altered it slightly since we didn’t have any tamari or coconut aminos). First, combine the maple syrup, lemon juice, minced garlic, ginger (we used ginger powder), and soy sauce (are substitution for the tamari/coconut aminos) and stir until combined. Next place your uncooked salmon fillets on your per-soaked cedar planks and then drizzle a generous helping of the glaze on it. *** NOTE: Make sure you save some to drizzle on your salmon once cooked for some extra bang for your taste buds!

Place the salmon on your preheated grill and cook for approximately 13 minutes or until flakey. Prepare your asparagus and place in your steamer. Season with a light coating of olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Get the asparagus going when you have about eight minutes left on the salmon. Next, preheat another cast iron skillet with a generous helping of butter on high heat until it begins to smoke (we used Alton Brown’s recipe for seared scallops). Once your pan begins to smoke, place your seasoned scallops in the pan, making sure they don’t touch and set your timer for one and a half minutes (you don’t want to overcook them). Make sure you shake the pan periodically to throughly coat the scallops and help prevent them from sticking to the pan. *** NOTE: Make sure you are periodically checking your sautéing squash so they don’t burn to the pan.

Once your timer sounds, flip the scallops, add some more butter, and set the timer again for another minute and a half, shaking the pan periodically like you did the first time around. Get some butter in a microwave safe dish (or place in a pan depending on your preferred method of melting butter) and melt your butter for dipping your cooked scallops in. Once the scallops have finished cooking, plate along with your sautéed squash, asparagus, and salmon, and pour yourself a nice glass of your favorite wine and enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 salmon fillets
• 1 lb fresh scallops
• 4 tbsp minced ginger (season to taste)
• Several pinches of salt
• 4 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 a stick of butter
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• 3 tsp dried rosemary
• Several pinches of pepper
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup tamari, or coconut aminos (or soy sauce for substitution)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp grated ginger