food+drink

Culinary Adventures #101: Scallops with Lime & Ginger Stirfry

Oh my word, we’ve not had a culinary adventure for nearly 3 months. That’s inexcusable!

Anyway last Friday was our 44th wedding anniversary. No, we don’t know how it happened either! So I did something a bit different, largely my own invention!

Scallops with Lime & Ginger Stirfry and Noodles

Serves: 2
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes

Main Ingredients

  • Scallops – as many as you like, we had a greedy 3x 125g packs
  • black pepper
  • paprika
  • 2-3 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 2 nests of Noodles

For the Stirfry

  • 1 large salad onion (or 1 banana shallot, or ½ small-ish onion), finely sliced
  • 1 red or yellow pepper, sliced
  • 3 medium mushrooms, sliced
  • 2-3cm piece of ginger, grated
  • 2-3 tbsp sunflower oil

For the Sauce

  • ½ wine glass dry sherry
  • a tot of brandy
  • juice & zest of 2 limes – zest reserved
  • 1-2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tbsp garlic paste
  • black pepper

What to do …

You need to concentrate on the timing as the scallops don’t want to be overdone; so have everything prepared in advance of cooking.

  1. Lay out the scallops on a board and pat them dry with kitchen paper. Sprinkle them on both sides with freshly ground black pepper and paprika.
  2. In a small bowl mix together all the sauce ingredients.
  3. Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions.
  4. Sauté the onion, pepper, mushrooms and ginger all together in 2-3 tbsp sunflower oil in a suitable frying pan or sauté pan.
  5. When the stirfry is cooking well (3-4 minutes), put 2-3 tbsp oil in a second heavy frying pan on a high heat.
  6. When the frying pan is hot, sear the scallops and cook for about 4 minutes, turning them over halfway through.
  7. As soon as you put the scallops on, add the sauce to the stirfry, bring back up to heat and cook to reduce and thicken.
  8. Just before the scallops are done, quickly drain the noodles and divide between warmed bowls.
  9. Top each bowl of noodles with stirfry, then scallops and garnish with the lime zest.
  10. Eat immediately accompanied by a bottle of champagne.

And it was good! There were no leftovers.

Notes

  1. As usual for us, no added salt or sugar.
  2. If you want to ensure the sauce thickens well, mix in a teaspoon of cornflour.
  3. If you want a bit of variation of texture, add a handful of cashews or pine nuts to the stirfry shortly before serving.