Friday, August 13, 2010

A fancy-schmancy dish that
doesn't take fancy-schmancy time

I love recipes for dishes that could be served at a dinner party but are still easy to make.
   Grilled Scallops and Nectarines with Corn and Tomato Salad (on the epicurious.com website) is just such a recipe.
   The dish is delicious, and it will impress, but you won’t feel like you’ve worked forever and a day to make it.
   I served it to my Mom and Dad when they came to visit, and they said it was as good as anything they could order in a fine restaurant.
   Dorie Greenspan, known for her baking cookbooks, created this recipe, which makes fine use of the produce of summer.
   One of the steps in making the dish is preparing a basil puree, but I really feel you can skip this (I have!) if you don’t have the time or energy to make it. It isn’t key to the recipe’s success.
   The rest of the steps are key, however.
   A dressing is made by whisking lime juice, lime peel, chili powder, and fleur de sel together in a bowl. (What the heck is fleur de sel? I tell you all about it in another blog post dedicated to the delights of this salt.)
   Fresh corn kernels and cherry tomatoes are each tossed separately with the dressing.
   Large sea scallops and nectarines cut into wedges are brushed with olive oil and grilled.
   The scallops are arranged on plates, corn is spooned around the scallops, tomatoes are scattered over the corn, then nectarines are placed “decoratively” around the scallops.
   Dressing is drizzled over the scallops, and this lovely dish is ready to serve.

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