About two months ago I found this recipe online for Seared Scallops with Pomegranate Sauce. I love pomegranates, and I really love scallops (as in, I order them whenever I see them on a menu), so it made sense that I saved the recipe and planned on making it ASAP. Well, ASAP didn’t come soon enough, and it took me until 2012 to finally gather the ingredients and get to work! It was well worth the wait.
Seared Scallops with Pomegranate Sauce
(Serves 3)
Ingredients
- 2 pomegranates, for the juice (I didn’t like the idea of juicing a pomegranate, so I used pomegranate juice, 1 cup)
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Dash of ground red pepper
- 1 1/2 pounds sea scallops
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil (I used 2 tsp butter because scallops taste better with butter!)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar (I used Truvia just to cut down on the sugar content)
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 cups trimmed watercress (about 1 bunch)
- 3/4 cup pomegranate seeds (about 1 pomegranate)
Preparation
- Combine 1 cup pomegranate juice, vinegar, soy sauce, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, and red pepper in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer until reduced by half (about 15 minutes), stirring frequently. Keep warm.
- Rinse scallops; pat dry. Heat oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle scallops with salt, sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper. Add scallops to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until done.
- Arrange 1/2 cup watercress on each of 6 plates; divide scallops evenly among plates. Drizzle each serving with about 1 tablespoon sauce; sprinkle with 2 tablespoons seeds.
I made this recipe with my friend Janan, and a few issues arose during our preparation. First, we purchased the wrong kind of pomegranate juice. It wasn’t true POM juice and we believe it was watered down, therefore the “sauce” was more like a liquid (as you can see from the photo). If you make this, use POM juice! Also, the original recipe said it served 6 people….well if this were to have served 6 people they would have been left pretty darn hungry. We each had about three scallops, and there were three of us (including Nick). There was two scallops leftover (which I actually ended up eating later that night…). Also, I hadn’t thought to serve this with a grain (duh Gina!) but we decided that if we were to make this again it would taste great served with a flavorful grain like quinoa or even wheat berries.
QUESTION: Have you ever made a dish that says it’s supposed to serve a larger amount of people than it actually serves?? Do people test these things?!?!
