Carnage du Jour - 14 May 10

Scallops. Sea scallops to be precise.
Although Heidi prefers bay scallops to sea, she did admit these were delicious - and that the spinach served along-side was the best she'd ever had. So ...

A nice hot pan with some oil.
Dry off the scallops a bit, then dust them with some ginger, white pepper, and curry powder.
Get a nice sear on both sides (don't overcook them unless you like eating rubber), and out of the pan.
Add a can of green chilies to the pan and sauté a bit, then add in some orange juice and cook down - just to thicken it a bit.
Then add some buttermilk to thicken and make the sauce nice and creamy.

This was all served with some rice cooked in chicken stock and chopped spinach.

What made the spinach so good? I'm glad you asked. It was just plain-old frozen spinach cooked in the microwave with a nice pat of (real) butter melted in, but then that orange and green chili sauce got drizzled over each of the items on the plate.
I have to think that the orange juice component was the key here. Growing up, we always would have some vinegar to drizzle on our spinach (yes, I ate spinach as a kid, and actually liked it), so it seems perfectly reasonable to me that other acids might work there as well.

At any rate, it was a very successful meal, and I'll see about replicating it with bay scallops next time (they're a bit tricky, as they're small enough to overcook very quickly).