Prawns and Scallops

Yesterday was a slow day. Spent some of it studying and trying to convince myself I was taking it all in! Arts Past and present is challenging but really interesting. The funny thing is when I first started the course I was sure Art History would become an interest, the chapter on Cezanne soon proved me wrong.  Turns out I just like looking at the pictures and reading biographies of the artists. Oh well, I have loved the history and literature side of things which is where my interests have always been.

My thoughts eventually turned to dinner when I was feeding Doggychops, he got a delicious mixture of carrots, chicken and rice and he hoovered it up with gusto! So what for me? I stood in front of the freezer and hoped for a bit of inspiration. Prawns? Yes. Scallops? Yes. So I put a big handful of each into a bag to defrost in cold water as obviously I hadn't thought to take them out the night before.

I decided to stir fry the shellfish with some asparagus, roasted peppers, shallots, garlic and chopped chilli. 

I roasted the peppers over the gas flame on my hob until the skin was black and fully charred, then popped them into a bag so the steam would loosen the blackened skin. I sliced them finely, as I did with the shallots.

I'd decided to sit this stir fry on top of another of those flatbreads from Aldi:

They are so tasty and all they take is around 40 or 50 seconds in a warm oven to heat through. I wouldn't recommend the microwave for them as this seems to make them a bit rubbery.

So for the cooking. Just heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a wide pan, first add the asparagus give it a couple of mins; you want it cooked but still with a bite to it. Remove from the pan and add the garlic, chilli and shallots.  Give it a good stir around for a minute or so then add the shellfish. The scallops I used were queen scallops and these are quite small and only take around 3mins or so to cook. I remove the coral as I find it's such an overpowering flavour you don't get the sweetness of the scallops at all. After 2mins, return the asparagus to the pan with the sliced pepper and just heat them through.  In the meatime, put the flatbread in the oven to heat through.  Put the warmed flatbread on your plate and then top with the stir-fry with all the juices that are released by the fish.  If you're feeling decadent add a knob of butter to the dish to make the juices even tastier.

This was a very satisfying and tasty dinner. The only thing I would have changed is adding more chilli to it to get more a of kick from it.  I dare you not to lick the plate afterwards!