Prosciutto Wrapped Scallops with Lemon Beurre Blanc

Special thanks to Marc's (our roommate) mom for sending him home from California with scallops, dungeness crab, salmon, prawns, and king crab legs. I was like a kid in a candy store trying to decide what to do with all that seafood.

I don't know where I thought of wrapping the scallops in prosciutto, but probably because it's almost bacon (and if you don't like bacon, please...stop reading my blog) - and it just wraps around things so well and doesn't really fall apart. After telling Jon of my idea he reminds me that his friend, Foley (whose first name is actually Chris, but we don't call him that) is a cook at NoRTH in Cherry Creek and a graduate of JWU's culinary school AND apparently knew how to make some great lemony butter sauce.

"Something...blanc? Does that sound right?" Yep, beurre blanc - which in French literally means white butter. Add some lemon and it is absolutely perfect for fish. The ingredients: white wine, lemon, heavy cream, BUTTER, shallots, and garlic.

Here's the thing: beurre blanc sounds pretty fancy. I don't do fancy. I'm a cook. I'm not a culinary trained chef. But like I said...we knew someone who was. Enter: Foley. He came over after work, unbeknownst to him that I'd make him do more work. Sorry, dude. But he did give me a good cooking lesson.

Lemon Beurre Blanc
2 lemons
1 orange
white wine
heavy cream
2 stick butter
1 bay leaf

First he reduced the citrus and the wine with the bay leaf, to almost nothing. Then he added the cream and stirred until it thickened and added the butter in small chunks. You aren't supposed to add the butter all at once, because the sauce will break. But honestly, this isn't culinary school and if the sauce breaks it tastes the same - so who gives a @#!$?

In the end, you get this beautiful, yellow creamy sauce that almost looks like a hollandaise. And I'd imagine that it would taste fabulous on any type of fish.

So while he was doing his thing with the sauce (sorry for cheating, guys) - I seared my scallops (which again, I was apparently doing wrong - when I tried to throw my scallops in my sizzling oil - I was told it wasn't hot enough. It has to smoke first.) And the potatoes roasted in the oven with rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Please don't make fun of my dinky 2 scallops. The thing is, they were so darn good that I ate them all and forgot to take a picture. Since Jon is a skinny little thing (jealous) and not as much of a glutton as I am, he had two left. Well, actually he had 3. I ate one of them.

Did I mention I have to go to Zumba tomorrow?

But before that, I'll be polishing off the rest of this vin blanc.




Cheers,

~M