Sea Scallops with King Trumpet Mushrooms and Meyer Lemon Relish

Tonight called from something fairly simple and straight forward. I purchased 6 diver scallops on Sunday for this week and I thought these would be perfect. Cooking this dinner took a bit longer than planned. For one, I placed the scallops in the freezer Sunday so I had to wait for those to thaw. I know, I know. I shouldn't have freezed them. Shoot me. I also had to wait for 2 cups of my chicken stock to thaw.

While all of this defrosting took place, I diced the celery, carrots and mushrooms. A few things wrong here already. Recipe called for parsnips which for some reason I didn't write down. The relish really needed them. Secondly, I couldn't find King Triumpet mushrooms so I substituted shitake mushrooms which really wasn't a big deal. The shitake's added a great earthy flavor to the final dish.


I first made the relish which called from sauteeing the carrots and celery. The cooked for about 5 minutes and were placed in a small bowl. To the small bowl, I added juice from 2 lemons - one roasted (See below) and one not. I couldn't find Meyer lemons either. Ugh! Good thing this isn't baseball or I would have struck out already. I also used a bit of the zest from the roasted lemon. The final relish was so mouth puckeringly tart that I added a dash or two of sugar. Erin loves lemons so she was all about the relish.


The diver scallops I purchased from Central Market were nice and meaty. The portion size in the recipe was 4 per person. Luckily, Erin was with me at CM and said "I can't eat 4 of those!" We only bought her two. Not me. Give me 4 of those suckers!


The cooking of the scallops and mushrooms was quick and painless. The scallops cooked for roughly two minutes on each side in a tablespoon of butter. Once the cooked, I removed them from the pan and poured in 1/4 cup white wine and scraped up any brown bits. The mushrooms came next and cooked for 8 minutes or so on reduced heat. The scallops were added back to the pan to warm up.

To plate, I placed equal size portions of the scallops and mushrooms along side basmati rice topped with the lemon relish.


Rating: 92 points
Difficulty: Easy
Date Cooked: December 7, 2009

Erin LOVED this. The lemon relish was easily her favorite part. The mushrooms? Not so much. I will eventually find a dish with mushrooms she will like. The relish was super lemony which contrasted greatly against the rice and scallops. The scallops were plump, meaty and buttery. The rice was excellent as well thanks to the chicken stock. This was a great dish all around in my opinion.