Jamie: A Tale of Four Grocery Stores

Menu (thanks to Jo for sending me the recipes for the first two! My book is still MIA):

• Caramelized SeaScallops
• Buttered Farro
• Asparagus Coins

Due to a mixture of lack of research (farro is also known as spelt!) and being hell-bent on not spending $3 on a bunch of herbs, I ended up going to four (count ‘em, four!) grocery stores yesterday evening. The first grocery store had spelt (but at the time I didn’t know that that was farro), and I decided at the second to go with orzo instead. The third had thyme, but not chives so I had to head to the slightly smelly Foodmaster (vendor of fine wines like Mommy’s Time Out) for that. 

At home I dove right in and gathered my ingredients, tools, bowls, and computer to look up the recipes. It was around this time that I realized (thanks, WIkipedia!) that the orzo of today is not really a grain, but a pasta. Despite that, I thought I could cook it more or less the way the recipe called for, making some adjustments for cooking time. 

With my mise en place in, well, place, I made my sachet:

sachet, walk away

Once the orzo was cooking, I started on the asparagus coins. I made the parsley water and chive oil, although, oops, the latter is supposed to sit overnight in the fridge. This is why you thoroughly read a recipe before starting to cook!

asparagus coins mise en place

The timing worked out well here, although while the orzo and asparagus were finishing up, I should have started the brine for the scallops. At any rate, they were easy enough to cook (I didn’t clarify the butter either- I decided when I began cooking that I didn’t have time), and smelled delicious. I used TONGS to flip the scallops and transfer them to a plate.

My roommates really enjoyed the meal-- Danielle said the scallops were the best she had had (!) and Jen said “Oh my god, it’s so good” a few times. And this is when I realized I only kind of like scallops (I think when someone else cooks them I enjoy them more. I’m leery of undercooking them). But! The orzo was good and herb-y (someday I will try it with an actual grain) and the asparagus was delish, too (I would not mind making this as an official Bearded Ladies recipe sometime in the future). 

 

Hopefully my cookbook will be here for next week’s cooking adventure!

(I can't tell if it's just this computer or not, but I apologize if spacing is wonky.)