Our local Wegmans just did a full renovation and as a thank you to its customers, they featured several products at sale prices that were from 12 years ago when they opened!  Pretty awesome, if you ask me.  So, sea scallops were on sale for $9.99 a pound (fresh, wild, beautiful, local) instead of the usual 19.99 a pound.  We bought 2 pounds of course. 

Have you ever had scallops at a restaurant, or even in your home, and you take a bite of this expensive and delicious seafood only to get a bite of gritty sand?!!  It ruins the experience, doesn’t it?  The answer for those of us cooking them at home…always clean your scallops REALLY well – also pull off any little rubbery/tough pieces that are stuck to the sides of the scallops (that is actually not supposed to be eaten). I usually rinse them in cool water several times to get any sand out of them and then I rinse them one last time for good measure.  Make sure to thoroughly pat them dry or you’ll have too much water in the scallop when you try to cook them in the frying pan.  This leads to a lack of golden coloring on the scallops when you try to pan sear them.  

Once they are clean and dry, you can season them with salt, pepper, and spices of choice (I use dill sometimes).  You’ll get a frying pan, heat it up with a little oil in it – just enough so they don’t get stuck to the pan – and then add in your scallops.  They should sizzle a bit when you place them in the pan.  Also, space them out so they have room to cook.   Once they are starting to change color from translucent to white and you can see some golden or light brown coloring on the bottoms (take a peek to check), add in your lemon juice and flip them over.  Add a new drizzle of oil if needed.  Now let them cook for a few minutes and you’ll know they are done when they are plump and no longer translucent in the middles.   

I like to serve these with a hearty vegetable.  There are so many to choose from such as baked sweet potatoes, a lemony kale and jicama salad, or what we used for this recipe, collard green ribbons.  Super easy to make and packed full of nutrients!  They twirl like a noodle but are a carb free veggie.  This meal was satisfying and delicious!