Sea Scallops with Succotash

Corn and shellfish have this ability to amplify one another's charms. This time of year the corn hereabouts is so plentiful good that it's hard to eat anything else-either simply boiled or grilled-but eventually corn ennui sets in and I must begin tweaking it. Adding shellfish is an easy trick-shrimp. crab, lobster, and here scallops. Succotash is one of those dishes I gew up with, my mom made it often with corn and lima beans, I love it to this day! Here I scraped the corn from 3 ears and combined it with fresh fava beans, sauteed it with some garlic, onion, and peppers, and used it as a base for huge plump sea scallops which had been briefly grilled and spritzed with some fresh lime juice.

Fresh corn-scraped from 3 large ears of fresh corn

2 cups of fresh shelled, and blanched fava beans

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/4 cup diced red pepper

1/4 cup diced sweet onion

salt and pepper to your liking

sliced scallions for garnish

2 tablespoon of butter

Melt the butter in a saute pan and saute the peppers, onion, and garlic for one minute, add the corn and fava beans and continue to saute

Add 1/2 cup water, and continue to cook until the water is evaporated and the beans are soft

Season with the salt and pepper

Top with the scallions and grilled scallops

For the scallops:

Allow 2 U10 scallops per person (U10 refers to the size and indicates that there are under 10 scallops of this size in one pound)

Brush the scallops on each side with a olive oil, and grill briefly on each side. Sprinkle with salt as they grill, and squeeze fresh lime juice on them once they are removed from the grill

Serve on the succotash

Huevos Rancheros with Mole Coloradito

Here is my personal take on Huevos Rancheros-English translation is Eggs Ranch Style. The Spanish language is so much more poetic. I referenced (meaning :sorta followed) a couple recipes in Rick Bayless's first cookbook "Authentic Mexican-Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico" published in 1987 with his wife Deann Groen Bayless.

I used store bought white corn tortillas, which I toasted in a skillet. I followed two of Rick's recipes for the beans "Brothy Beans" and "Frijoles Refritos" combining them for an outstanding bean mixture that I spread over the toasted tortillas. I fried the eggs on the bottom only and placed them on top of the bean mixture. Boiling hot mole coloradito is ladled over the top of the eggs which cooks the top and finishes the dish.

The Mole was not the sauce reccomended by Rick, he reccomended a Tomato Chile sauce. The Mole Coloradito has all the components of the tomato Chile sauce but more. Toasted garlic, toasted bread, chicken stock, charred tomatoes, and Guajillo chiles-dried and reconstituted in chicken stock. Place all the ingredients in the blender and pulverize. Strain the mixture through a medium sieve into a hot skillet with a little lard and sautee the sauce for a few minutes, thinning with more stock to get the consistency you like. Assemble the tortillas and ladle the hot mole over the top.

This was a pretty simple Mole compared to the dark chocolatey ones. I have never tried to make one of those dark moles-the list of ingredients is daunting. This was a remarkably delicious breakfast with deep flavors.