Scallops with Bacon & Kale

(Click for large.)

I finally got some time last night to cook, after a busy (but lucrative) week. I decide to do something out of

(Thanks, Plebbie! XD)

Usually when I buy bacon it’s whatever brand is on sale at Ralph’s, but this time I decided to splurge on Whole Foods bacon (because that’s where I went to get the scallops). This is like, double the usual price of bacon!

That is… about 30$ of scallops… Bacon (obviously–very important), coconut milk (optional), black sesame, sesame oil, chicken stock, yellow pepper (forgot to picture the onion), kale, cilantro, and ginger.

I departed from the recipe in several ways. The recipe doesn’t call for marinating the scallops, but I did it anyway. Usually I do it with cornstarch and olive oil, but the recipe wants me to fry the bacon with some sesame oil. I figured that would be too much oil, so I marinated with the sesame oil and just fried the bacon by itself.

Having never worked with kale before, I actually had to look up how you’re supposed to cut it. I’m pretty sure this part I did right (removing the stems) but after that, I couldn’t figure out what “crosswise” meant (just use longitudinal and transversal, people!), so I just said whatever and rolled everything up.

I also added some garlic even though the recipe doesn’t call for it, because what doesn’t taste more delicious with more garlic?

The recipe calls for frying the bacon and searing the scallops in a wok, but that would have made for terrible clean up as everything would have stuck to the wok, so I just fried with my non-stick pan. Which, actually, I think the non-stick coating has mostly come off…

I also think the directions call for searing the scallops with the bacon. However, the bacon need to be stirred to prevent charring/burning, whereas the scallops need to just sit there and be seared, so I just took the bacon out. There is also not enough room for everything, a dozen jumbo sized scallops barely fits on this… well I guess it’s a medium sized skillet.

After some time. Mmm, delicious seared scallops!

At this point I poured the bacon grease into the wok and fried the vegetables. Unfortunately, this… hurts. But then, genius struck. I am designating this glove as my special frying glove. You have no idea, being able to stir without being attacked by flying bits of burning oil is an amazing feeling.

Add back the bacon. (The technical term is return… The more you know!) Then I pushed everything to the side and let the bottom of the wok heat up so that i can fry the ginger+garlic for a bit (not pictured).

Add the wet (soy sauce, chicken stock). Interestingly, my coconut milk is solid from being in the fridge… It looks like sour cream or something from the picture.

After that I had no more time to take pictures. Return the scallops, add the kale, then at the end add the cilantro, and sprinkle some sesame seeds on there.

More porn:

Protip: if you’re going to fry in bacon grease, there is no need to add salt.

Shrimp… with Cluuuub Tomato Sauce

终於又开始烧菜了YEAH!

I had shrimp, and I had a can of tomatos, so… Shrimp with Tomato Sauce it is. I was missing some of the ingredients (and forgot to add sugar…), but this came out pretty well anyway.

I was lamenting my lack of ginger and chili bean paste. But then I remembered I had a chili. Why do I have a chili? It went something like this.

At Ralph’s.
Justin: Oh man! Whadaheck! What is this “yellow chili”! That’s crazy! This chili is all yellow!
Me: I’m gonna get one.
Justin: Yeah, do it. Yeah, fuck you.

I cut off a small piece to taste. It wasn’t spicy at all. Then I ate one seed. It attempted to be spicy but is too much of a pansy. Like Justin.

Fry aromatics.

Reduce the sauce.

Fry the shrimp.

Add the shrimp back to the sauce, garnish with green onions (busting out the fancy place), and…

I wasn’t sure if this was going to be delicious. But then I sat down and took a bite and thought to myself, man, why am I so awesome. Mmm mmm mmm.

Forced into Vegetarianism

So we finally bought a fridge. In celebration I went to Ralph’s. I wanted to get some chicken breast so I can try making Pad See Eww again, but it wasn’t on sale, and I wasn’t about to pay $4 per pound for chicken. Pork was expensive as usual, and beef… Well, actually, there was a buy one get one free deal going on, but it was for gigantic roasts that I have no idea what to do with. So, I just… bought some tofu. At $1.25 per pound, it’s actually cheaper than meat! So I’ve been forced into vegetarianism by… I suppose, my jewwiness. It’s not that I can’t afford it at the current prices, or even think them unreasonable. I just know that I can get it cheaper if I wait.

And so, right now, I am eating… a basil sandwich. I heated my garlic bread up in my oven (which, btw, has horrible insulation–is there supposed to be a cover for the vent?) and just threw on a bunch of basil leaves on there. Yup.