Tough to find the time to cook a good meal these days, let alone write about it, so I have to first confess that I made this dish Sunday night and this is the first chance I’ve had to sit and write about how I made it!! Many apologies for the delay! And apologies also for the name – I couldn’t figure out what to call this dish!
I picked out the fattest scallops Whole Foods had to offer to get things started. I had a good and ready avocado on hand and some pistachios. I recently saw a recipe for a guac that had pistachios in it, so I think that’s where my mind was. But it turned out that there weren’t many pistachios in the bag, so I improvised with the addition of some pine nuts!! And thus began this dish.
I started with the side dish of some roasted veggies, since they take the most time. Broccoli, summer squash, portobellos, and green beans, tossed in some jalapeño and garlic EVOO by Calivirgin. I love this oil – it’s not too spicy and very flavorful. 
Then I prepared the avocado cream. Wasn’t sure exactly what I was doing here, but never be afraid to experiment in the kitchen!! Worst case scenario, good ingredients are always still edible!! So be creative. Here, I halved a good lookin avocado.
Then scooped it into the immersion blender container.
Set aside briefly while I toast up the nuts!!
Lightly roasting nuts up in a sauté pan enhances their, well, nuttiness! Then I chopped up the nuts, tossed a few into the immersion blender container and set aside the rest for sprinkling later.
Into the blend, I added about a teaspoon of mayo, a teaspoon of honey, a little lemon juice, bout a teaspoon of the jalapeño garlic EVOO, and some salt and pepper.
Blend til smooth. This got really smooth. I taste tested and it was pretty cool! Sweet, spicy, creamy, and a little nutty. Yeah! I plopped some blobs down on the plate to make a bed for the scallops.
Before searing scallops, always make sure to pat them dry. Then sprinkle with salt and pepper. I used a nice smoked salt by Saltworks. I love smokey flavors.
Get the pan nice and hot, and then brown some butter in there for the searing.
I always place the scallops in clockwise order so I know what order to flip them in. It takes about two minutes on each side to get a good sear.
These fatties were pretty big, so after searing each side, I tossed them around a little in the hot butter. Mmmm, butter. I was definitely feelin butter. I also thought that the scallops might need a sweet sprinkle on top in addition to the nuts. Enter another chopped item for the sprinkling – some dates! Dates are great and underused. I’m going to work on that.
Got my sprinkling ready, and now it was time to plate. Wait, I think it’s gonna need a little extra butter drizzle, just for fun. So I browned up a little more butter.
I placed a scallop gently on each avocado cream pillow. Then drizzled the butter and sprinkled on the nuts and dates!!
This was lookin real good! Now for a close up-
I laid down the veggies beside the scallops and had me a very nice dish. The nuts and dates with the scallops were so perfectly delicious!! And the avocado cream pillows really brought that creamy texture to go with the crunch of the nuts! It was definitely a symphony of tastes and textures!!
I highly recommend experimenting with your cooking as often as possible – you never know what great things you’ll end up creating!! I don’t know if I’ve cooked with dates before, and definitely never paired them with scallops, but this is so happening again! The nuts and dates, also known as the “sprinkle,” really made this whole dish come together!
Eat, Drink, and Go! 