Cooking Away the Post Mexico Blues

After 10 days in Mexico, we returned to NYC earlier this week to freezing sleet. I quickly retreated to my recent memories of lounging on the beach and eating seafood for breakfast, lunch and dinner along with cold micheladas and tequila…for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Last night I couldn’t bring the sun back, but I could at least cook up some saltwater delicacies. I opted for scallops with spinach and lemon risotto since I didn’t want to compete with the tasty fish, shrimp and octopus ceviche we had grown accustomed to.

I used the lemon risotto recipe from Bon Appetit but I skipped the extra butter and parsley at the end. It also made enough for six so next time I would half the recipe.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Risotto-106451

For the scallops and spinach, I followed this recipe from the Unemployed Chef. I liked their hint about not moving the scallops around in the pan so that they get that nice carmelized color.

http://theunemployedcook.blogspot.com/2006/03/seared-scallops-over-wilted-spinach.html

After finishing our meal, we didn’t plunge into the ocean and nap under a palm tree. Instead we had ice cream and watched The Wire. In other words, time to go back to Mexico.