This dish is so amazing I did have to say I impressed my self as well as my Husband. We could eat this every night if we could ;)
I used natural bacon from one of our favorite farms here is Michigan "John Henry's" of Millington. They deliver our meat and dairy every couple of weeks right to the house.
Pan seared scallops only take a few minutes to cook to get all your sides and ingredients prepped and ready so the last thing you do is put the scallops on the plate and serve nice and hot.
Ingredients:
Package of Natural Bacon
Scallops (5 - 6 pp depending on the size)
Olive Oil
Butter
One Green Onion (chopped)
Two Garlic Cloves (finely chopped)
Sea Salt
Pepper
1/2 Cup Chicken Broth or White Wine
Baby Arugula (washed)
Toothpicks
Prepare the bacon. Layer uncooked bacon on a plate with paper towels lining the plate and in between the layers of bacon. Cook in the micro wave 4 to 5 minutes to "pre cook" the bacon and remove some of the fat.
Prepare your scallops, defrost if frozen, rinse and pat dry with paper towel. They will not sear if they are not dry!
Your bacon will look like this at this point, slightly cooked but not crunchy, you should be able to wrap the scallop easily.
Wrap the scallops secure with tooth pick and cut off extra bacon, set aside.
Season wrapped scallops with salt and pepper (both sides)
Chop up all the left over pieces of bacon and set a side for the sauce.
In a large "hot" skillet/frying pan, add two tablespoon olive oil, two tablespoons butter and 1/2 of the chopped garlic. Stir until butter just starts to turn from yellow to a light brown color "your pan is ready"!
Place scallops in hot pan and sear two to three minutes on each side, don't over crowd the pan, you may have to cook in batches if your pan isn't large enough or use two pans. They will look like the photo below:
Remove cooked scallops from pan and place on a paper towel lined plate, cover with a lid or foil.
To the pan add the chopped bacon pieces, chopped onion and remaining garlic. Stir until the bacon is slightly browned. Add chicken broth or wine, stir to get all the good bits of flavor off the bottom of the pan. Reduce for a couple minutes until the sauce starts to thicken (pan is pretty hot so this shouldn't take long). When sauce is ready add two tablespoons of butter and just swirl the pan to incorporate, this will give it a glaze look to the sauce (if you stir you will not get the same effect).
Plate scallops on top of baby arugula and top with sauce, serve.
You could also serve over buttered rice or noodles.
Enjoy ;)
