A recipe!

Today, my faithful readers, a recipe!

A friend came to visit today and Ron made us lunch - we both remarked on how we like to cook by seeing what there is in the larder and creating something where the fellas like to find a recipe and then create something after buying the ingredients not at hand. Later this afternoon, I came back from being with the delishes dishes - my three grandkids - and thought about a nice quick dinner for Ron and I. We had a half bag of those lovely little bay scallops (thanks Jesse!) and yukon gold potatoes and bits of this and that. I went on to Smitten Kitchen (check link to right) and she had this lovely potatoey - garlicky - hot peppery - almondy thingy. There were many ingredients I didn't have BUT in the manner of the recipe I created the following:

Gypsy Potatoes

Wash and peel a bunch of potatoes. Put them in a bowl with a cover and micro-wave for 4 minutes. Take them out and dry them. Put them in a nice big iron frying pan with olive oil (I was out but that is what I would use), some pepper and rosemary sprigs. Cover with tinfoil and put in 400 degree oven for about twenty minutes - give them a poke now and then to see how they're doing.

Meanwhile - soak a handful of dried tomatoes in hot water in a bowl. Dice up two or three big of the poblamo chiles that come in a jar (quite smokey so beware if you don't like that flavour). Chop two onions and a lot of garlic - saute til soft and almost brown in another frying pan. Chop up a green pepper too and some fresh tomatoes (two maybe) - saute the lot and when you're happy with it bang the works in the food processor and give them a whirl. You don't want a smooth puree but a rough choppy look. Throw the works back into the frying pan and cook it down while your potatoes roast. Add some capers (maybe six), a dash or two of balsamic vinegar and at the end - a handful of chopped cilantro.

While I made this stuff - I had thawed the scallops. I cooked them in a third cast iron frying pan (we have six) quite dry. As soon as I saw they weren't going to go all watery on me - I added a bit of butter and got the pan good and hot and threw in some white wine. Voila. Never cook scallops for very long. Raw would be good but I like that burnt butter taste myself.The scallops I put in a bowl - the other two dishes I brought to the table in the frying pan. The only other thing we had was homemade mayonaise I had made a few days ago. Everything went with everything and we were happy eaters!
Alas, no pictures. Really folks - I had my hands full.