Do You Gastrique?

Oh, you don't.  Well, I do.  Yeah yeah, I'm super dooper fancy in the kitchen now.  Got my copy of Bon Appetit and well, as we all know, that makes you nearly a professional!

Ok, just kidding.  I was proud of myself though.  Do I know what a gastrique is technically?  No.  But I do know that I heated some sugar and then added vinegar and it got hard (and I got scared) and then it got soft again and I added the other stuff and let it reduce (for a heck of a lot longer than indicated in the recipe) and then it tasted really good.  So that is my definition of gastrique.  For now...

Bon Appetit's Scallops with Blood Orange Gastrique.  C'mon, you know that sounds damn good!

Gastrique:
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon Sherry wine vinegar
1 cup fresh blood orange juice (from about 6 oranges)
1 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth

Scallops and brussels sprouts:
2 blood oranges, peeled, separated into segments
1/4 cup each (lightly packed) fresh parsley leaves, fresh mint leaves, and fresh tarragon leaves
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Coarse kosher salt
8 ounces brussels sprouts, leaves removed from core, core discarded
20 large sea scallops, side muscles removed

Note: My supermarkets did not have fresh tarragon, so I added 1/2 tsp of dried.
Place sugar in heavy medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until sugar begins to melt. Stir until sugar dissolves, then cook without stirring until deep golden, about 5 minutes. Gradually add vinegar (mixture will harden). Stir until caramel melts, about 1 minute. Add orange juice; boil until mixture begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Add broth; boil until gastrique coats spoon and is reduced to generous 1/2 cup, about 15 minutes.

Mix orange segments, parsley, mint, and tarragon in medium bowl. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil; toss to coat. Season salad with coarse salt and pepper.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add brussels sprouts and toss until just tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer brussels sprouts to bowl. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to same skillet. Sprinkle scallops with salt and pepper. Add scallops to skillet and cook until browned and just opaque in center, 1 to 2 minutes per side.

Arrange scallops and brussels sprouts on plates. Drizzle gastrique over scallops. Garnish with salad.

Positively delicious!  This was an adult's only night, but I do think my guys would've eaten the scallops and maybe a sprout or two since I broke them down into leaves.  Neither of us are into brussel sprouts, but breaking them down this way and cooking the living daylights out of them made them much easier to get down.  My husband even went back for seconds!

Any first timer "fancy" cooking success stories out there?

Blackberry Hot Sauce & Scallops. What??!!

Yeah, a spicy blackberry sauce over scallops.  Who woulda thought.  But it was soooo good!  Recipe obtained from Clean Eating magazine, modified by me.

1 packed cup blackberries
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
2 tbsp raw honey
2 tbsp chopped green chiles
1 tbsp adobo sauce (found mine at Whole Foods)
1 cup wheat couscous
sesame oil for pan
large scallops
pepper to taste

For sauce: combine berries, lemon zest, lemon juice, honey, chiles & adobo sauce.  Stir and set aside.

For couscous: boil 1 1/2 cups of water, add couscous and cover tightly, removing from heat.  Let sit for 5 minutes then fluff with fork

For scallops: season with pepper (both sides).  Drizzle sesame oil in pre-heated skillet to thinly coat.  Skillet should be HOT - we want to sear the scallops.  Cook on both sides, turning once, to desired doneness.

After removing scallops from skillet, add blackberry mixture and heat until berries start to come apart.
Serve scallops over the couscous and top with blackberry sauce.

Nutritional info for serving as shown above (give or take a few): calories 461; fat 5g; sat fat .5g; omega-3s 150 mg; carbs 56g (these are the good carbs though, no white flour, etc); fiber 11g; sugars 16g (from the fruit mostly); protein 52g (great shot of protein!); cholesterol 110mg

This was soooo good (I mean you can't really go wrong with seared scallops anyhow, but...) and surprisingly filling (I did have a spinach and pear salad as an appetizer though).  I did enjoy the blackberry sauce as well.  It took me by surprise at first, but the sweet and spicy combo over the scallops was delicious.  I do enjoy the sauce better than the whole berries though and I think I will cook it down even further next time.  I also have some sauce left over and plan to put it over salmon - we'll see.

Anybody have any killer seafood recipes that don't include butter?