graduations, company, and commitments has led to a 5 week hiatus from "date night" for marcela and i. so, this past friday being void of any plans, we took advantage. the night began with a couple beers at a new TI (tenant improvement) bar I designed that had finally opened. There, we came up with a grocery list that would take care of our "normal" dinners and lunches for the next week. All that was left was deciding what we should cook that night for dinner. without any strong opinions from either side, i told marcela to head to the store while i researched my books and notes.
having had one of just about everything in the past week, and feeling awfully lethargic and "heavy", i decided we needed to have something light, something more vegan than carniverous, and whatever meat to be used, better have come from the sea! voila...a recipe for asparagus & oyster mushroom fricassee!!! now it didn't call for any kind of seafood, but i thought some pan-seared scallops would go nicely. unfortunately, as you'll see in the picture, the scallops were on the small size, and ended up a bit more braised than seared. however, this meal was fantastic. in fact, i ended up licking my plate because i couldn't get enough of the sauce. what do you think eric ripert would have to say about that!!! anyway, the recipe was pretty simple, i blanched a bunch of sliced asaragus for a couple minutes before refreshing in an icebath. then, i sauteed some [very] coarsely chopped and seasoned oyster mushrooms in some butter until they began to crisp. after they gained a little color, i added some chopped shallots and sauteed for another couple minutes. next, i added about a 1/4c white wine and let it marinate and reduce down to a couple tablespoons. after it had properly reduced, i added roughly the same amount of heavy cream and stirred until thick, then right before serving, i stirred in some chopped chives, parsley, and tarragon and then served. you can prepare the scallops anyway you'd like, i simply added some cumin and ground coriander to ours. we paired it with a bottle of cameron hughes, lot 25 sparkling wine.
