Dates, Beets, Scallops
We’ve been a bit lazy about cooking lately, so I set to work on making a nice home-cooked dinner.
The longest prep time was for the slow-roasted beets (from Michael Symon’s Live to Cook). They take over an hour in the oven, and that doesn’t include making the vinaigrette, etc. The combination of the beets, blue cheese and walnuts was exquisite, though, all heightened by the balsamic orange vinaigrette. In the words of Bridget Callahan, “ridonkalously” good.
I was the only one who really enjoyed the dates with pancetta, almonds and chillies (again, from Live to Cook). Jonathan tried a raw date earlier and really liked it, but his reaction to the dish was basically “why did you f&*% up my dates?” Sarah doesn’t like dates in any form. This left me with almost a half pound of dates to myself. The sweet / savory / spicy / herbal (from the pancetta) combination was truly elevating, and the chewiness of the dates with the crip almonds and pancetta made for a great texture. I polished off most of 2–3 servings (for better or worse).
The main course (way simpler than everything else) was the scallops skewered with rosemary (until that ran out and I had to use toothpicks) wrapped in homemade bacon, marinated briefly in olive oil & lemon juice, and seared on a grill pan. These were quite good overall, but it didn’t help that the main ingredients came from the freezer (which was not the case with the other dishes). The dish was inspired by Steve Raichlen’s How to Grill.
Eating a good meal at home was a nice change of pace, and we’ll be doing more of that soon.
this title encompasses three of my all time favorite foods. you just need to throw in garlic, bacon and lobster and i’d be in food heaven.
Alexa: Both the dates and beets have lots of garlic, and there’s bacon in two forms (regular and pancetta). So the whole thing would be perfect for you with a lobster tail thrown in.
Please feel free to call me for help anytime you have leftover date anything.
Can’t wait to make both of these dishes. They have both been on the menu of Symon’s restaurants over the years, in various forms. Beets are such an under appreciated vegetable and it’s a shame because they are so good for you. Unfortunately most people think of the sliced, canned version when you mention beets.