Flamed scallops on quinoa fusilli is a nice light meal to start the summer. This dish is filled with slightly cooked bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, lime zest and fresh basil leaves. The sauce is mainly a little butter in which the scallops seared in before getting flamed and caramelized with an orange flavored cognac/brandy (Grand Marnier). A divine dish, and so simple to make.
Where I come from, the east part of Canada, scallops are pretty common in our plates. Although, since I’ve been living in Spain, it got quite difficult to find any and when I finally do, they cost so much… So I go to the freezer shop… yes only frozen stuff of all kinds shop, and get my patagonian mini scallops once in awhile. Strange… that in Spain, a seafood lover country, it’s so hard to find any. Although in the West part of Spain, Galicia, they do a meal with scallops in breadcrumbs, ham and onions which sound delicious.
Scallops are mostly wild in Canada, although the farmed scallops are supposed to be sustainable for the environment. Scallops are little filters of the sea, they purify the water from suspended solids, bacterias, etc. They are beneficial for the sea, and apparently hardly need any antibiotics in those type of farming. So… in other words, it’s a good deed to eat them.
Scallops are in many sizes and forms; some like in Canada, come whole with its shell, or some come with the coral (red part) still attached to it, and of course there is many sizes. Back in my homeland, I was used to medium sized scallops, which takes slightly more time to cook, although in this dish, I’ve used those mini patagonian scallops, which take barely 3 minutes to cook. So you’ll have to adjust your timing depending on the size of your scallop. The searing effect is much more easy to caramelize on a medium or big scallops, with the mini kinds… they are cooking too fast to sear good, that why I’ve caramelized them by flaming them.
So let’s flame those precious sea creatures.
Flamed scallops on quinoa fusilli
Makes 2 portions
Ingredients
- a pack of 30 mini scallops
- 250g of quinoa fusilli
- 1 bell pepper finely sliced
- 15 cherry tomatoes cut into 2
- 30g of butter
- 30ml of Grand Marnier (or any Cognac/Brandy)
- 2 few leaves of basil leaves
- zest of lime
Directions
- Unfreeze the scallops (in cold water) and path them dry with a paper towel
- Salt and pepper them up
- Cook the quinoa fusilli al dente (usually less long than normal wheat fusilli, be careful the package directions often suggest double the time… so go with the old way, try them up)
- Bring a wok or pan to high heat
- Add the butter to melt
- Add the scallops, and let sear them (resist the urge to move them too much if you want a good brown skin) for 3-4 minutes or until golden
Add the Cognac/Brandy and flame the scallops (turn off your fan before flaming)- Add the pre-cut pepper, tomatoes and cook another minute
- Add the pasta, salt, pepper and mix all together
- Serve in bowl, with a few basil leaves and lime zest on top
Enjoy!
In the Caribbean, they master the art of bananes flambées, they usually use a little extra orange slice to cook the bananas in. Feel free to use a slice of orange or lemon. I add a little cinnamon, butter, rum and cane sugar only. That cane sugar is one of a kind, if you are lucky enough to have some, you can always replace it for brown sugar. The cane sugar, on the other side, way lighter in color, is made from the crushed sugarcane, it’s filled with minerals, antioxidants and is way less processed than normal sugars. It’s like a bite into raw sugar cane! Delicious!
While flaming the bananas, take all the safety precautions… meaning, if you flame your bananas on the cooktop make sure to turn off you hoot, otherwise it will bring the flames into the ventilation pipes… which is dangerous. Also, make sure to pour the rum into a glass first and don’t let it come out directly from bottle … if you do the flaming at the table, like my dad used to do, then make sure the kids are at a safe distance and nothing flammable is around the flames! So…