Low Country Scallops and Bacon over Quinoa

I love scallops...one of my favorite seafood. I love it fried, sauteed, grilled wrapped in bacon...you name it, I'll eat it with scallops if I could. Sea scallops can be a little pricey so I was thrilled when I was in Albertson's last week and they were on sale for $8.00/lb. I bought a pound and a half...since that will feed me and my son, Ross. I froze them because I had other things to cook last week and didn't really want to try to think up something good and different to do with them. Mind you, I would have eaten them fried, but I'm trying not to eat fried foods so the goal was to find a less fattening way to have these wonderful treats! 

Ross and I went to lunch last week at Ruby Tuesday's and new, on their menu, was Low Country shrimp and grits. I LOVE shrimp and grits...I mean, I love them and I try them any where that I go...even Ruby Tuesday's. Ruby's had the right idea but the wrong cook since the andouille sausage was crisp...WRONG!!. Anyway, I digress, just a little only because it was those shrimp and grits that was my inspiration for my dinner tonight...that and a recipe that I repinned on Pinterest for bacon wrapped scallops (been there, done that quite well). 

So...I put my sick thinking cap on (I've had the flu-y/cold since Thursday) today while I was sitting on the couch watching this great movie, The Eagle (with Channing Tatum) and came up with an idea. A few weeks ago I cooked rabbit in white wine with bacon and mushrooms so I decided to steal some ideas from that recipe and steal some ideas from other dishes I have had in the past. I came up with Scallops and Bacon over quinoa. Now, here I will confess that I would have loved to have served this dish over some cheese grits...but alas, I didn't have any grits and finding them here in Idaho isn't that easy. So, I decided to use quinoa, which will be much healthier than the cheese grits...even though I'm secretly wanting the cheese grits! I decided to call this dish "Low Country" because I used bacon and Old Bay seasoning and if Ruby's can call their recipe low country because they throw in some Cajun seasoning, I can too. :-) One disclaimer, I've stated in other recipes that I don't do bell pepper. Typically in Cajun cooking, you use bell pepper but I cannot handle them. Instead, I've been buying bags of mini-sweet peppers. Honestly, they don't taste sweet at all, they taste like a pepper without the strong bell pepper taste. 

Low Country Scallops and Bacon over Quinoa

1/2 lg. onion, sliced
2 lg. cloves of garlic, minced
3 small sweet mini peppers, diced (here is where you might deviate and use bell pepper instead)
8 slices of bacon (chopped up)
2 lg Roma tomatoes, diced
1 cup (or so) fresh sliced mushrooms (really, you could use however many you like)
1.5 lb.s sea scallops
2 tbsp. EVOO
1 cup white wine (cooking wine is what I used but you could use the real deal too)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. Cajun seasoning (Old Bay is the only thing I can get here in Idaho...my typical go to is Tony Chachere's). 
Cooked quinoa (I cooked one dry cup)
3 tsp. cornstarch. 

Instructions: 
Cook bacon in pan until crispy, remove and set aside. Saute the scallops (season lightly with a little sea salt) in the bacon drippings for five minutes, then remove (you don't want to cook the scallops done since they will be simmering later). Add EVOO and saute onions, garlic and peppers until onion is tender on medium high heat. Add tomatoes and mushrooms and stir until tomatoes are cooked down. Add wine, scallops and bacon, bring to a boil over medium high heat, then turn down to low. Add the bay leaves and Cajun seasoning (normally I would add more than a tsp but my son doesn't like things overly spicy), then cover. Let simmer for 30 minutes. During this time, you can cook the quinoa. 

Since the scallops will create liquid, before serving, you will want to use the 3 tsp. of cornstarch dissolved in just enough water so that it isn't goopy. Add this to the pan and stir to thicken up the sauce. Serve immediately over quinoa (or you can choose rice, cheese grits or pasta). This would also be nice with some toasty garlic bread (I didn't cook any because I was trying to keep my caloric intake down but if you can eat bread, by all means do). You can also season with a little hot sauce, if you like it a little more spicy than I cooked it. 

If I must say so myself...this turned out to be fabulous! Happy Mother's Day to me!!! 

-Kim
Be Well, Eat Fresh