Recently I have seen and sampled dishes on restaurant menus with a delicious topping called a Lacquered Sauce. Of course, the ingredients list is usually a mile long and requires hours of chopping, but the revamped version I came up with here calls for less than 20 minutes for prep and cooking time.
The Lacquered Sauce can be approached from many directions. You can get the mahogany Asian flavors from a long list of ingredients or you can streamline. This version uses only ingredients found on most home pantry shelves. The fabulous taste is the same as the very complex sauces found in restaurants.
The glazed sauce works especially well on fish when temperatures are high and time is short. If you find our choice of scallops not to your liking or too expensive, salmon cubes also work beautifully -- or try cubes of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
The Lacquered Scallops ride on a bed of Speckled Rice, which is actually an Oriental rice mix with seasonings and some added vegetables for color and taste. The trick here is to cut the vegetables in small pieces and then add them to the rice during the final minutes of cooking. The results will be beautifully steamed vegetables and rice -- all in one pot.
Complete the meal with your favorite ice cream and, of course, fortune cookies.
Items you should have as staples are: apricot jam, soy sauce, Oriental sesame oil, white vinegar, carrots, scallions, ice cream.
Your 10-item-or-less shopping list:
1 pound sea scallops (or 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts)
1 box (6 to 7 ounces) Oriental rice with seasoning mix
1 red bell pepper
1 (10-ounce) package frozen snow peas
fortune cookies
Lacquered Scallops on Speckled Rice
Serves 4
LACQUERED SAUCE:
1/2 cup apricot jam
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons Oriental sesame oil
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 pound sea scallops or substitute 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast cubes, patted dry
1 box (6 to 7 ounces) Oriental Rice with seasonings
1 medium carrot, peeled and shredded
1 (10-ounce package) frozen snow peas, thawed
1 scallion, sliced on the diagonal
Heat the broiler.
Mix the sauce ingredients, then toss with the scallops. Let stand while you prepare the rice.
Make the rice according to directions.
You will be adding the bell pepper, shredded carrots and snow peas to the rice during the last 3 minutes of cooking to steam the vegetables gently. Set a timer to ring when there are 3 minutes of rice-cooking time left. Add the vegetables and then reset the timer.
Line a baking sheet with foil and place scallops in sauce on it. Position pan about 2 inches from the heating element to get the scallops browned and glazed. Watch carefully while broiling. Don't overcook.
Place rice and vegetables on a patter or on individual plates. Spoon scallops over, sprinkle with scallions, and serve immediately.
MENU
LACQUERED SCALLOPS
ON SPECKLED RICE
* FORTUNE COOKIES
& ICE CREAM