Citrus jams are truly a secret weapon in the kitchen. You can spark up your entree, make a dressing, glaze your side dishes, pump up the volume on your dessert or make a refreshing spritzer. For this recipe I'm featuring a simple dinner I made for my mom. A spicy sweet scallop dish with couscous, roasted carrots & broccolini and a side salad with dressing. It looks impressive but it's pretty easy to make.
Total time to make all these things is about an hour. Give or take.
SPICY SWEET SCALLOPS - CITRUS + HOTSAUCE
Ingredients:
•1-2 lbs Scallops - I used the only scallops I could find in Española, New Mexico. Preferably larger scallops would be easier to work with.
•Butter or olive oil
•Salt
•Dollop of citrus jam - I used Rosehip Meyer Lemon Marmalade in this photo
•Microgreens - I used a combo of mixed greens and sunflower seedlings from Friends Trading Co
•Hotsauce - I used my mom's homemade Chimayo red chile sauce but you can use any hot sauce you like. Or maybe even a Salsa Macha.
Directions:
- Pat dry the scallops of as much moisture as you can. Salt the scallops.
- Heat your oil or butter in the skillet to medium high.
- Place the scallops down to sear. Depending on size of the scallop sear for 1-2 minutes & flip. Cook that side for 1/2 the time.
- Remove from skillet and drizzle the marmalade over top. (I heat the marmalade up a bit to make it easier to drizzle)
- Put a bed of micro greens down on the plate and place your citrus scallops on top.
- Garnish with spots of hot sauce and sunflower sprouts.
ROASTED CARROTS & BROCCOLINI + CITRUS GLAZE
Ingredients:
•1 bunch - Fresh carrots with greens
•2 bunches - broccolini
•Avocado oil - has a higher smoke point than the olive oil I used and smoked out my moms kitchen
•Dollop of citrus jam
•Salt
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 and parchment paper or oil a cookie sheet.
- Wash those veggies. Shake out the excess water.
- Cut the greens and stems off the carrots and put aside. You will be using those later. Cut the carrots into 2-3" lengths and if the carrots are large, quarter them into spears.
- Put the carrots and the broccolini into a bowl and coat with avocado oil.
- Arrange on baking sheet and put into the oven. Don't go far. Keep an eye on those suckers because you don't want all this effort to end up charred bits.
- After 10 min toss/flip to roast the other side for another 5-10 min.
- Remove from oven and drizzle warmed citrus marmalade over. I do this at the end instead of the beginning because sugars will burn easily. We want a roasted vegetable flavor, not a roasted sugar flavor.
COUSCOUS + CARROT STEMS
Ingredients:
•Pearl couscous
•Water
•Chopped carrot green stems (from above)
•Citrus Salt
Directions:
- Prepare couscous as package instructs. Only pro-tip to add here is I chopped up the stems of the carrot greens for some springy interest and texture.
- Sprinkle citrus salt over top for added zing.
Ok. Last Citrus recipe here is for the beautiful and delicious Side Salad with Citrus dressing.
CITRUS KISSED SIDE SALAD
Ingredients:
•Mixed greens - I used fresh organic greens from local greenhouse Khalsa Farms
•Carrot greens
•Dollop of citrus jam - I used Rosehip Meyer Lemon Marmalade again in this photo
•Olive Oil
Directions:
- Assemble your salad adding some of those reserved carrot greens.
- Mix citrus jam to olive oil about 1:1
- Dress salad with this kiss of citrus and I like to top with sea salt flake and cracked black pepper.
That's it for this meal. I just love how citrus can kick up any meal. Let me know if you have any thoughts.