May 18, 2017 Lunch – Azuma. Dinner – New Recipe Pan Seared Scallops on Spaghetti with fresh Sorrel Pesto

May 18, 2017 Lunch – Azuma. Dinner – New Recipe   Pan Seared Scallops on Spaghetti with fresh Sorrel Pesto

I made a new dish for breakfast I sautéed red onion and capers and then fried an egg over easy and placed it on a toasted half of a bagel that I had smeared with cream cheese and laid slices of Gravad Lax.  The result was a rich gooey egg sandwich but my body reacted a BLT to the extra fat from the butter in the fried egg.  I realized that there was a trade off between the rich hot breakfast of an egg sandwich and the cool clean flavor of Lax and onion and capers on a toasted bagel with a thin coating of cream cheese.  Each has its own distinctly different characteristics, even though, except for the butter used to cook the egg they contain the same ingredients.  Voila.

I went to lunch with Mike at Azuma.  Mike is the opposite of a sushi freak.  He does not eat raw fish.  I ordered my usual Chirashi Donburi and we looked at and discussed the menu at length. Mike said that he had enjoyed a steak he had tried at a tepals grill recently.  We looked at the teppan choices and the bento box choices and Mike asked about the different fish choices, like, “What does mackerel taste like?”  After some discussion Mike chose a bento box with grilled beef, a grilled salmon filet, a pickled cucumber salad and fresh slices of cucumber.

There is a new sushi chef and his rendition of Chirashi was beautifully presented in an open elliptically shaped bowl.  I shall return.  Mike’s dish was perfect for him.  He enjoyed the grilled meats and ate most of the pickled cucumber salad.  We enjoyed discussing law stuff.

I finished working at 6:30 but had discussed dinner with Suzette when she arrived early at 5:00.  We decided to sauté the scallops I bought at Sprouts on Wednesday and make pesto to mix with the PPI pasta.

So at 6:30 we went to the garden and picked a basket full of sorrel because sorrel’s slightly bitter flavor goes really well with the slightly sweet rich flavor of scallops.

Sorrel Pesto

Suzette first pulsed pine nuts, garlic, and raisins in the blender for a few seconds.  Then she added grated Pecorino Romano and pulsed the mixture for a second.  Then she filled the blender with sorrel leaves that we had cleaned and de-stemmed and drizzled a bit of olive oil onto the leaves and pulsed the mixture until it became a slightly gritty purée.

Suzette adds raisins when she makes sorrel pesto to balance its bitterness.  She does not add raisins to basil pesto, because basil is a sweeter milder flavor.  Suzette told me that Lisa taught her this principle.  You must balance the bitterness of an ingredient with a sweet ingredient that adds balance to both the dish in two respects.  In this dish Suzette said that the raisins not only balance the bitterness of the sorrel, but they add a fruit to the dish, so you have nuts, fruits, bitter herbs, cheese, and oil to emulsify everything.  You end up with a complete condiment that is in balance and can complement many different dishes.  Even something as simple as plain spaghetti and a seared scallop.

We enjoyed our simple, yet elegant meal.

Bon Appetit