Pork and seafood just go together ... here in a hot and sour salad, here in Singapore noodles, and tonight in a super-simple - but also luxurious - scallop and chorizo dish.
I always have seafood in the freezer - prawns, squid and scallops - as it defrosts really quickly in cold water and then cook quickly too, so there's always something good for dinner.
So I just put some scallops in a bowl of cold water to defrost and prepared the other ingredients:
cooking oil
one garlic clove, crushed and minced
a red chilli, diced
a few slices of chorizo
a couple of spring onions, sliced
some sliced red pepper
one shredded little gem lettuce
and/or cooked rice to serve
Put a pan on a medium heat, add a little cooking oil (I use a spray oil) and add the garlic, chilli and chorizo.
Cook for a few minutes letting the chorizo release that lovely colour - and do add a splash of water if you need to so nothing sticks and the garlic doesn't burn.
Then add the scallops ... I once read that scallops are 'helpful' when they cook in that when one side is done it will naturally come away from the pan and you're able to turn them, but I think you'd need to be using more oil than I am for this to work!
I just cook them for a couple of minutes each side and add a little splash of water as I like to have a little sauce in this dish.
When the scallops have had a couple of minutes on each side, throw in the spring onions and red pepper and cook for a two or three more minutes.
And that's it!
You could serve with some plain rice, or you could try what I like - which is to add shredded lettuce (mine was little gem but any would do) to the pan and stir in to wilt.
I really like this.
I love cooked lettuce, that lovely braised lettuce done the French way with petit pois and mint, and one day decided to just add lettuce into a pasta ragu, or an Indian-style curry - and I liked it hence trying it today in this dish too!
