Pan-Seared Scallops and Braised Mushrooms

The other day I decided to treat myself to a 3-course dinner right at home. Well, it was almost my birthday so I felt it was justified. That means you get two recipes today. For appetizer, I had a simple green tomato salad with some toasted chopped walnuts so I'm just going to give you a photo. 

Then came something I've been looking forward to making: seared scallops. I have always loved seafood, perhaps because I grew up rather far away from the sea and seafood was often a rare treat as it was (and still is) expensive. But I never got to eat scallops until my last few months in Singapore. Even then, it was dry scallops. Then came graduate school with its wonderful feature called "stipend". Well, I tend to think of it as salary for my teaching duties but whatever it is, it's an income. I think I first had scallops at Spring - a restaurant that is now closed. So this dish is a much simpler version of what they served there.

INGREDIENTS:
Make 1 serving

3-4 large scallops
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp butter
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

~15 small dried shiitake mushrooms
~7-8 fresh shiitake mushrooms
~7-9 dried wood ear mushrooms
~4 oz chicken broth
3 Tsp of white wine
3 large cloves of garlic
1 inch of ginger
Oyster sauce
Soy sauce


METHOD:
Soak the dried shiitake and wood ears mushrooms in a bowl of warm water for about 20min. Cut off the stems off.

Bruise the garlic cloves and remove the skins. Peel the ginger and slice it into slices, bruise the slices with the end of a knife, or whatever you prefer.

Put the rehydrated mushrooms, garlic cloves, ginger slices into a small sauce pan, add the chicken broth. Carefully pour about 1 cup of the water used to rehydrate the mushrooms, be careful not to pour the sediments that have settled onto the bottom of the bowl. Add the oyster sauce and soy sauce (how much you add should depend on how salty the chicken broth used is.) Put the pan over medium heat until the water boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting possible, cover the pan and let it cook for about 20 minutes.

Add the cleaned fresh shiitake mushrooms with their stems cut off to the pan, cook for another 10 minutes.

Remove the cover, add the white wine and turn the heat on to low medium. Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Remove the ginger and the garlic, put the mushrooms onto a deep plate/coupe bowl.

Clean the scallops, remove the side "foot" from each. (Wash them carefully if they came in packing liquid). Pat dry, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Put the olive oil and butter onto a medium skillet on medium high heat until the mixture is about to smoke. Carefully add the scallops, leaving room between them. Cook each side for about 1- 1.5 minutes until about 1/5 of an inch of each side is golden brown and the middle is still translucent.

Place the seared scallops on top of the bed of mushrooms, garnish with young watercress tips or sprouts. Serve immediately.

Bon appetit! The recipe for crème brûlée will follow.