Sautéed Prawns and Scallops in Garlic Butter

Awhile ago I mentioned that Stuart's mother was coming up for Sunday lunch, which I was admittedly a little worried about. However, it went off without a hitch and I do hope the food was up to scratch :) There was quite alot of food but I always think there should be a bit too much than to have too little. Of all the food we had that day, which included Malaysian beef rendang, Thai red chicken curry, long bean omelette; I only took this one photo - the starter of sautéed prawns and scallops in garlic butter served with a mix green salad with a soy and ginger dressing. Ohh so simple and very good, if I may say so :)

Prawns and Scallops in Garlic Butter served with a mix green salad with a soy and ginger dressing

Fresh scallops - about 3 per person
Fresh prawns - about 3 per person
Garlic - finely chopped
Butter - a very generous knob
Oil - just a touch

• Put a shallow pan on a medium-high heat until it's very hot. Add a touch of oil into the pan - just to lightly coat it.
• Lay the scallops in a circle around the pan, flat side down. Cook for about 1 1/2 minutes or until lightly caramelised on one side.
• Turn the scallops over, starting from the first scallop added to the pan until all the scallops in the circle have been turned
• Add the prawns into the middle of the pan, along with the garlic. Cook for about a minute before tossing to cook the prawns on the other side.
• Put in a generous knob of butter and season. Toss the prawns, scallops and garlic together. Cook for no more than a minute longer - you don't want rubbery seafood.
• Place on a plate and add the tossed green salad to the side.

A bag of mixed salad leaves - or whatever salad leaves you fancy
4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp Japanese rice vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
A few drops of roasted sesame oil
1/2 inch ginger - grated
1/2 clove garlic - grated

• Wash the salad leaves
• Put all the other ingredients into an old jam jar (or any other jar) with a tight screw top
• Shake the jar vigorously to mix the dressing. If it's left to stand, the dressing ingredients will separate - so another shake before pouring over the leaves is advisable.
• Toss the salad with the dressing in a large bowl - but do not do this until the prawns and scallops are ready to be plated.
  

Theft!

I have very recently found out that my photographs and blog contents have been copied off my Flickr account and from this blog to be featured on another blog - WITHOUT my permission or knowledge. Needless to say I was very angry when I found out....it really is just plain theft. I did visit the site (which I'm not going to promote by giving out the address) but apart from it being written in what I believe is Burmese, there is absolutely no contact information on the blog. After my initial anger had died down, I was going to pen a very polite message to this person asking for the removal of all copied material - a heck of lot more courtesy than this person ever showed me! But with no means of contacting this person, I seem to have hit a bit of a dead end.

However, an interesting view did come out of all this. On the day I found out my material had been copied, I was letting my frustration flow out to Stuart (alright - having a bit of a rant and rave) and he said I should be flattered that someone wanted to copy my work. Interesting viewpoint but I still rather sticky hands be kept away. I take the photos and write my blog purely out of enjoyment and love for the subject matter. I don't particularly go out of my way to advertise my blog but if others do come upon it, I hope they enjoy it as much as I do. I have, however, decided to mark the photographs that I post through my Flickr account. I never thought I would have to, but hopefully it will act as a slight deterrent to those terribly syrupy sticky (honey or golden syrup?) fingers from flinching any more of my stuff.

Pancake Sunday

Thanks to Betty Crocker, we had a really nice but very late lunch last Sunday. Late because I slept well past noon ... it was Sunday, so it can be overlooked ;)

I've had a box of Betty Crocker's Bisquick All Purpose Baking Mix sitting in my pantry for a few weeks now, just waiting for the right Sunday to cook up a batch of American style fluffy pancakes. It's just one of those things I've been dying to try and I finally bought a box - it even had a great picture of American pancakes on the box, oozing over with syrup. Just add milk and an egg .... cook over a pan on a medium heat. Brilliant! According to the instructions, half a packet makes about 16 smallish pancakes. I managed about 10 pancakes of various sizes :)

Serves doused in maple syrup with a small mountain of crispy streaky bacon and ... black pudding. Stuart went out to buy milk and bacon but also brought back a tube of black pudding - just to try. Haha he's such a food wuss sometimes. He seemed to enjoy the meal. I think he sometimes misses the big American breakfasts he used to get when he lived in Vancouver - he wolfed down 7 pancakes :D