Holiday Recipe Spectacular - Appetizer - Wasabi-Ginger Crusted Scallops

This could be one of my husband's favorites...if I ever made it for him instead of always making for dinner parties!  The guy is mad about sea scallops.  If you can pull off this delicious, flavorful hors d'ouever-you will score points with many.  Isn't that what holiday parties are all about, after all? ;)

Wasabi Crusted Scallops
12 large sea scallops
1 teaspoon ginger, fresh minced
1 tablespoon wasabi paste
1 garlic cloves, fresh minced
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup short-grain rice, cooked and seasoned
2 tablespoons sesame oil

Pineapple-Mango Salsa
1 cup pineapple, fresh diced
1 cup mangoes, fresh diced
1/3 cup cilantro, fresh chopped
3/4 cup red onions, finely diced
3 tablespoons lime juice, fresh squeezed
1 tablespoon orange juice, fresh squeezed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions
Stir together all of the salsa ingredients in a large bowl. Place 1/4 cup rice in center of 4 plates using a custard cup or any other method of shaping the rice mold. Place 1/4 of the salsa mixture around the rice on each plate. Mix together ginger, wasabi paste, garlic, olive oil, and salt in another bowl. Heat a large saute pan to medium-high heat with some olive oil.

The Anti-Chicken Fingers Movement - Polynesian Pork Chops

Polynesian Pork Chops

I’m rollin’ the dice here…another slow cooker meal.  If you read my first Anti-Chicken Fingers Movement recipe, you may remember that my husband usually responds to slow cooked meals as though I warmed a can of pork and beans and a hot dog over a camp fire and said “welcome home honey, dinner is served” …until he tasted the divine lime cilantro tacos from last week’s bit.  So, yeah, I thought I’d try again.

This week’s meal from my favorite recipe site is Polynesian Pork Chops.  After browsing enticing photos and skimming ingredients, I found a dish that I was excited about.  I feel duped though.  What I thought was a meal suggested by a hard-working mama experimenting with dishes that were sure to please her whole family, was actually from Campbell’s.  Aha!  That’s why they were so direct about me getting Campbell’s Golden Mushroom Soup.  I figured that out after I made the meal.  Nice!

What I love about this dish:  It was so fantastically easy!  I made it more difficult at first by using a fresh pineapple.  With the medley of tastes, canned pineapple would've sufficed.  But, now we have a few days worth of fresh pineapple.

What the hubs loved about this dish:  The familiar taste of the soy sauce (check out a quick story at the bottom of this blog post regarding said husband and soy sauce) blended with the sweetness of the honey and pineapple made a typically boring dish-pork chops-well, fun!

What I served with this dish:  Brown rice instead of the white; peas (my boys love them some peas) and warm fluffy biscuits.  I’m still not eating carbs and those biscuits were killing me!

Bon appetite!

J Leah

Polynesian Pork Chops

• 4 boneless pork chops, 3/4-inch thick
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell's® Condensed Golden Mushroom Soup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 (8 ounce) can pineapple chunks
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 cups cooked regular long-grain white rice
• Sliced green onion

Directions

1. Season chops with garlic powder.
2. Heat oil in skillet. Cook chops until browned. Add onion.
3. Add soup, water, pineapple with juice, soy and honey. Heat to a boil. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or until done.
4. Serve with rice and sprinkle with green onions.

Soy Sauce Anecdote - We had only been dating a month or two, Zac and I. We had scored a free breakfast brunch at one of the nicest bayfront hotels in San Diego. The one I actually worked at. They had everything...cinnamon french toast, baked goods galore, an omelet bar, fresh fruit you wouldn't believe, I almost think I saw ham, and then there was the sushi table. The glorious sushi table! Mid-conversation, Zac's eyes start to grow distant and I'm getting the idea he's not listening to me. Men! Then they start to tear up. He had obviously mixed way too much wasabi into his soy sauce. I think it took him a half hour to recover!