Friday, June 11, 2010

Scallops with tomato-cilantro pozole

Scallops with Pozole

My secret ingredient recently for weekday cooking: canned, fire-roasted tomatoes (I use the ones from an organic tomato company). Here it makes a nice base for scallops.

This recipe (today's lunch) was made with what I had on hand, for two people. I presume it would double easily, and then you wouldn't need to worry about what to do with the other half a can of tomatoes, other half an onion, etc. If you have or can afford more than 3 scallops per person, I would recommend 4 or 5 per person. You could also probably put a chile pepper into the pozole if the people you are feeding it to aren't as spice-averse as my spouse.

Ingredients:
1/2 medium-sized onion, coarsely chopped
a good bunch of cilantro, some leaves reserved for garnish, rest (including stems) coarsely chopped
1/2 can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
1 can golden hominy
1/2 cup chicken stock
6 sea scallops
1 green onion, chopped, for garnish

1. Put the onion, cilantro (except for reserved garnish) and tomatoes in a blender and puree. It doesn't need to be totally smooth (green bits are ok), but shouldn't have any noticeable chunks. Add a couple of pinches of salt.
2. Heat some oil in a heavy saucepan, then add puree and cook until it darkens and thickens a bit.
3. Add chicken stock and hominy, bring to a boil, and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Ladle into two shallow bowls (the scallops cook really quickly)
4. Heat a thin film of oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. When oil is almost smoking, pat your scallops dry with a paper towel, season with salt and pepper, then add to the fry pan.
5. Cook scallops until well-seared, 1 to 2 minutes, then flip over and cook on the other size for a minute or two. Remove from pan and place 3 scallops on each bowl of pozole.
6. Garnish with reserved cilantro and green onion.

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