grilled scallop ceviche

I don't tend to make fancy food much and because scallops are pricey, they count as fancy in my book. However, after a trip to the Maritimes last summer where I tried scallops for the very first time, I just couldn't get them out of my head. When it came to making a nice celebratory dinner, I figured scallops were worth the splurge.

I didn't want a recipe that was too heavy with butter or cream, so I decided to make a twist on ceviche. Ceviches usually rely on lemon or lime juice to cook the raw fish, but a recipe found in Gourmet for a grilled scallop ceviche sounded ideal. And it was. It's full of bright, citrus flavours and the cucumber here is very refreshing against the jalapeño heat. It's the kind of meal you'd want to eat lots of in the summer, you know, in between your yacht sailings and Prada shopping sprees. And while this meal feels fancy, it's actually not such a big spend. The recipe only uses 8 large sea scallops and when you think about the cost of eating out, a nice meal in with a bottle of wine is pretty affordable (but go on and strap on some heels for the occasion).

Are you starting from frozen scallops? Use the cold water method to defrost rather than slowly defrosting in the fridge. Put your scallops into a ziplock bag, place bag into a bowl and slowly run cold water from your tap over the scallops until they thaw. Depending on the size of your seafood, this could take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. This way results in very fresh tasting scallops and this way your seafood doesn't get swamped with water. This quick thaw method works well for shrimp as well.

grilled scallop ceviche
(recipe adapted from Gourmet)
6-8 large sea scallops
2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1 t kosher salt
1/2 t black pepper
1 small orange
2 T fresh lime juice
3/4 English cucumber, seeded and diced
1/4 of a red onion, finely diced
1-2 jalapeños, seeds removed, minced

1. Sprinkle scallops with salt and pepper and brush lightly with a bit of olive oil before adding them to a hot grill pan. Grill until marks appear (about 1-2 minutes) and flip repeating the process. Scallops don't need to be fully cooked as they will fully cook in the lime juice later. Remove from pan immediately and set aside to cool.

2. Cut away the peel from the orange using a sharp paring knife. Cut segments free from their membranes and then dice. Add oranges, cucumber, red onion, jalapeños and any remaining orange juice into a medium sized bowl.

3. If your scallops are large & you want to be thrifty like me, slice the scallops in half on their sides so that 1 scallop is now 2 coin-shaped scallops (rather than cutting them in half width wise). Add the scallops to the bowl and squeeze lime juice over everything. Sprinkle salt and pepper over top and gently toss. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.

summer refresher: raspberry limeade

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain. I'm not going to get too down on this weather since after weeks and weeks of blissful sunshine, I'm sure the tinder dry forests and thirsty crops could use a bit of moisture. But back when it was hot outside, my friends and I took a little roadtrip to Westham Island for a little berry picking. You can read all about our trip on Hag's blog, The Urban Repast. My own version will come out next week on the Food Network blog. I'll keep you posted for when it makes it's debut.

But, oh the berries! We picked lots of them: raspberries, boysenberries, tayberries and black currants. While picking, I had dreams of berry pies, baked goods studded with ruby goodness, and even just the thought of tossing them into some granola and yogurt made me giddy. But the very first thing I made from the raspberries when I got home was some raspberry-limeade. Judging by colour alone, the ruby red liquid is truly stunning. Taste-wise? Oh boy, it's good. Really, really good. Refreshing and not too sweet (but if you prefer a sweeter -ade, please add more sugar syrup!), it's the perfect refresher for a hot day.


raspberry limeade
1 c fresh or frozen raspberries
1/3 - 1/2 c simple syrup*
3 juicy limes, juiced
5 c cold water

Puree the raspberries and put juice into a pitcher. Discard seeds. Add in lime juice and simple syrup and cold water. Stir and taste making any adjustments to sweetener or lime juice. Serve over ice.

* Simple syrup is an equal mixture of water and white sugar combined over heat to make a syrup. It's simple! I usually take 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar and mix them over medium-high heat until it just starts to boil. Once it completely melted, remove from heat and cool. I store it in a jar in the fridge to use for all kinds of drinks.