Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good idea of what I wanted to do with them. Searching for recipes didn’t turn up anything that really floated my boat and most recipes I could find on the net were for sea scallops. Sea scallops of course are much bigger than bay scallops so they lend themselves well to things like breading and frying but bay scallops usually just turn into very expensive and soggy balls of fishy goo if you do that to them. We’re very anti-fishy goo in this house. Thus there they’ve sat in the back of my freezer taunting me, “We’re damn expensive and delicious, and you’re still not eating us!”

Now, I’ve been doing of lot of rather meat intensive dishes of late (meat loaf, meat ball sandwiches, meat roast, vegetable meat soup…) so it seemed a good time to give my arteries a rest and maybe do something a bit lighter. And being really hungry I was also feeling quite impatient and, dare I say, reckless so I threw caution to the wind and thawed out the scallops deciding I’d just throw something together. Edible or not, it would get eaten. But my gamble paid off and handsomly, allowing you, dear reader, to benefit from my careless ways..

As with all my unrecipes, please don’t take measurements or even ingredients as gospel. I don’t really measure things most nights I”m cooking and whatever I list here are just approximations. Don’t want so much garlic? Cut it down. Want it fishier or richer? Add more scallops or butter. Substitute fake crab meat for the scallops and rigatoni for the pasta if you want, and add a little heavy cream to the sauce. Hell, make a yucky face and order a pizza if you want. It’s all good.

Bay Scallops and Sea Shells in a Light Lemon-Dill Sauce Unrecipe
Ingredients

• 1 lb. medium shell pasta, cooked and drained
• 1.5 lbs. bay scallops, well-drained and patted dry
• 6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1.5 cups chicken stock or bouillon
• 3 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 3 Tbsp. dried parsley
• 1.5 tsp. dried dill
• 1 – 2 Tbsp. butter

Preparation

1. Heat olive oil in a large pan on high heat
2. Sautee garlic about a minute just till it turns light brown
3. Add in scallops and toss to coat with oil, let cook for about two minutes (If you can get yours to brown, you’re a better cook than I)
4. Stir, and allow to cook a couple of minutes more
5. Add in chicken stock/bouillon and lemon juice and allow to come to a boil
6. Reduce heat to a simmer
7. Add in parsley and dill, giving a stir to distribute evenly (ooo… pretty…)
8. Let scallops and broth/bouillon mixture continue to simmer until reduced by about half the volume (about six to ten minutes)
9. Add butter, and stir until melted
10. Toss with pasta shells and enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Pan Fried Salmon with Lemon-Dill Sauce
2. Squash Pasta with a light Rosemary-Garlic Butter Sauce
3. Chilled Lemon Shrimp Pasta Salad

It doesn’t have to be complicated either. Just like in love, a plain and simple screw is exactly what you need once in a while. So it goes that sometimes the simplest meals are the best ones. Last night was like this. All we did was pan fry some salmon that had been hanging out in the freezer and served it with this uncomplicated and unpresuming lemon-dill sauce that I threw together at lunch time. On the side we had steamed asparagus because asparagus was on sale this week and I bought a mountain of it (we both love the pointy green veggie).

And you know what? The lemon-dill sauce was as good on the asparagus as it was on the fish.So here’s the recipe, but by all means, don’t feel like you have to restrict this sauce to just fish. I imagine it’d be just as good on some chicken, pork or beef. And if you don’t have a lemon to grate, don’t worry! Remember, we’re keeping it simple here and it’s going to taste as good whether you use bottled lemon juice or the real deal.

Pan Fried Salmon with Lemon-Dill Sauce
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tsp. dried dill
• 1 tsp. grated lemon rind
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Enough salmon to make you feel full (the fish should be at room temperature before frying)
• Garlic-pepper salt to taste
• 1-2 tbsp. peanut oil

Sauce Preparation

1. To prepare the sauce, simply whisk the first six ingredients together until the sauce is nice and smooth. Add salt and pepper as you see fit and give it a final couple of go-rounds with the whisk.
2. Refrigerate the sauce for a couple of hours before serving although feel free to make this the night before.

Fish Preparation

1. To cook the fish, first rub it with as much garlic-pepper salt as you think you’ll like
2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet on high
3. Fry the salmon skin-side down first for 3-4 minutes
4. Flip the salmon and fry the other side another 2-4 minutes until the flesh should is firm and flaky
5. And you’re done! Serve with lemon-dill sauce splashed over the top

Related posts:

1. Bay Scallops and Sea Shells in a Light Lemon-Dill Sauce Unrecipe
2. Quick’N'Easy Creamy Peanut Sauce
3. Chilled Lemon Shrimp Pasta Salad