After a hiatus I promised myself I wouldn’t mention, involving illness, heartache and new friends, seafood seems like a good place to start. A trip to the local market and we have fresh scallops, spinach and parsley from the home garden.

Ingredients:

• 3 scallops per person, or 4 if you love them
• Duck fat, frozen or fresh (I get it frozen at the local Asian supermarket), or butter or oil
• A serving of rice per person (basic recipe)
• Handfuls of fresh Italian parsley
• A handful or several fresh beet greens
• A handful of fresh or frozen spinach
• 1-2 chopped green onions
• Handful of pre-cooked chestnuts (optional)

Scallops:

• Heat the pan to medium-high with duck fat or oil of choice
• When the pan is sizzling hot, add scallops
• All recipes say 2 minutes per side but if you didn’t get your pan hot enough, it can take 5 minutes or more
• Cook until they don’t look translucent, they should get milky in appearance (nervous cooks can cut them in half to double-check)

Green rice:

• Cook the rice in a pot, or add to pot after cooking
• Add onions and greens, cook for a few minutes
• Add parsley and crumbled chestnuts, cook for a few minutes longer or until hot through

Green rice is adapted from Gwyneth Paltrow’s wonderful book My Father’s Daughter. You can use whatever greens you have on hand, kale is a good option although I recommend cooking it first.

Bon appetit!