Seared Sea Scallops with Gingered Pea Purée and Cilantro Gremolata

Over Thanksgiving Jed’s sister introduced us to food52.com, a super awesome community based recipe and food contest site. We immediately started searching the site and bookmarking tasty recipes to try. As soon as we came across this one for scallops with gingered pea puree I couldn’t wait to try it.

As he mentioned before, Jed loves scallops. It's really rare to find good scallops in a restaurant (we had awful scallops at some sushi place in the Valley, and awesome scallops at Susan Feniger’s STREET).

We used frozen scallops. I know, I know, frozen scallops are often a recipe for disaster (anyone watch Top Chef? Anyone remember what happened when Spike used frozen scallops?). Nevertheless, we’re on a perpetual budget and the entire meal turned out awesome!

We also used frozen peas in lieu of fresh peas- mostly for color, because flash frozen vegetables keep such nice color and cost a fraction of the fresh stuff (English peas in a pod are a seemingly hard to find year round and on a whim).

Try it for yourself. You’ll be thanking us…

For the Scallops and Pea Puree:

* 2 cups shelled English peas (or frozen peas)

* salt

* 1 large garlic clove

* 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

* 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

* 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

* freshly ground black pepper

* pinch cayenne (optional)

* 16 large sea scallops, about 1 1/2 pounds (we used about a pound)

* Cilantro Gremolata (see below- this was really good)

1. Prepare the Pea Purée: Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add 2 teaspoons salt and the peas. Cook until peas are tender. Remove from heat and drain peas, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Ask a question about this step.
2. Combine peas, 1/4 cup reserved water, garlic, ginger, 2 tablespoons olive oil, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper and cayenne in bowl of food processor. Purée until smooth. Add more water as necessary to achieve desired consistency; the purée should not be too thin. Transfer to a bowl and keep warm. Ask a question about this step.

3. Prepare scallops: Pat scallops dry and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the scallops, taking care not to overcrowd in the pan. Cook, turning once, until brown on both sides and just cooked through, about 4 minutes. Transfer to plate and keep warm. Repeat with remaining scallops. Ask a question about this step.

4. To assemble, spoon pea purée on serving plates. Top with scallops. Sprinkle scallops and purée with gremolata. Drizzle lightly with extra-virgin olive oil. Serve immediately.

For the Cilantro Gremolata:

* 1 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

* 1 garlic clove, minced

* 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest

* 1/2 teaspoon salt

* 1/2 teaspoon freshy ground black pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients together in a small bowl and mix well.

Serves 8 as an appetizer, 4 as a main course