Scallops with Sweet Corn & Roasted Pepper Puree

As I am sitting here typing this recipe my wife's phone rings. I can tell by the ring tone that it is my son Joel. He left North Carolina to start a new chapter in his life today. He called to say that he arrived at Whiting Air Force Base. Two weeks ago he was inducted into the United States Air Force as a Second Lieutenant. It is kind of ironic that he arrived on Memorial Day, but he can't officially check in until tomorrow as they are closed for the holiday. For those of you who have been reading my blog for a couple of years this is the same son who was a Marine and got 3 Purple Hearts. While in college he decided to to become a pilot. Joel joined the Air Force ROTC and now that college is over he is heading to  Pensacola to start his pilots training. I am sure he will succeed as he is determined to fly, more mature and has a good wife to support him. How well he does in school will determine what type of "plane" he will fly with "fighter jet" being the big reward. In a year I expect to be posting a picture of my son sitting in a "fighter jet". Good luck Joel and Meghan.

Scallops with Sweet Corn and Roasted Pepper Sauce
8 scallops
2 tsp olive oil
2 ears of sweet corn, roasted or boiled, corn cut from cob
1 red pepper, roasted
2 tbs heavy cream
2 slices of bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
1 green onion, cut finely

After the corn is cooked remove the kernels from the cob, reserve 1/4 of the kernels if you want a chunky sauce. Cut the pepper in half (if roasting your own core and seed it). Cut 1/4 of pepper into fine dice and reserve if you want to add it to finished sauce. Add 1/4 of pepper, corn kernels and cream to blender. Puree the mixture. Taste for sweetness. If the sauce is to sweet add more red pepper. When the sauce is at desired taste add reserved corn and red peppers and stir in with a spoon.
Heat a pan to high. Add the oil. While the oil is heating dry the scallops with a paper towel. Drying them will help them brown. When the oil is shimmering add the scallops. Cook until they take on color and then flip them over and brown the other side. The whole cooking process will only take 3 to 5 minutes depending on size of scallops.
Pour sauce on plates. Place scallops on top. Sprinkle the green onions and bacon over the whole plate.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Red Pepper Soup

 I could have titled this how to destroy a KitchenAid blender in one easy lesson. When pureeing the butternut squash in the is recipe I filled the blender 1/2 full as per the instructions. I then pureed the squash. It was very thick so I added a little more liquid and threw the switch. I heard a grinding sound and  noticed nothing in the blender was moving. I immediately switched the blender off. When I lifted the container off the base and found a bunch of ground up plastic. The teeth that make the blades turn were destroyed. Luckily I have a food processor and was able to finish pureeing the squash. Since the blender was a few years old we threw it out, as it turns out you can buy replacement gear and we could have just replaced that gear. We looked at the new models and they no longer have that type of gear to drive the blades.

This is a very simple soup with lots of flavor sweetness from squash, savory from red peppers, spice from hot sauce.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Red Pepper Soup
1 2-3 lb butternut squash
2 red bell peppers, cut in half cored and cleaned, or used purchased
Liquid to make soup consistency you want. I like it thick, so I added 1 can flow fat condensed milk and some 1/2 and 1/2. You could add milk, vegetable or chicken broth or even water. The size of the squash will also make a difference in how much liquid you need, so you are going to have to use your judgment on this.
Dash of hot sauce.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cut squash in 1/2 and clean out the seeds and stringy gunk. Cut each half into 1 inch pieces. Toss squash pieces with olive oil and place on cookie sheet. If roasting peppers toss them with oil but don't add them to cookie sheet yet. Roast for 35 to 45 minutes until squash is caramelized. Add the peppers with 25 minutes to go, but watch them so they don't burn (the skin might get black and start to peel). Remove any large pieces of burnt skin from peppers.

Add enough squash and some red pepper to blender to fill it 1/2 of the way. Add some liquid and puree. pour this into a saucepan. Keep doing this until all of the squash and red pepper has been pureed. Heat over medium heat until soup is hot. Add hot sauce until it is to your liking.

Serve immediately.

  

Roasted Pepper, Sun Dried Tomato & White Bean Soup

As the weather cools down and fall slowly creeps up on us our food thought turn to foods like soups. Why it dropped all the way down to the mid 80's this week.  My wife got out her insulated underwear. Although I am not really sure she ever put it away, I have never seen anybody who is as cold as she is. She wears a hoodie to the grocery store because she has to go in the refrigerated section.

Here is a a very simple soup I came up with that features pantry items Roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, white beans and pasta. You can make this in 20 minutes.

Roasted Red Pepper, Sun Dried Tomato and White Bean Soup
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes finely chopped
1 tbs of oil from sun dried tomatoes (you can use olive oil)
1/2 jar (15 oz) jar Red Peppers, finely chopped (about 3 whole peppers)
1/3 cup of small pasta, like orzo
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
Fresh basil

Heat a pot with the oil in it. Add the garlic and heat until fragrant. Add the broth and the sun dried tomatoes. Let the broth come to a boil and leave it for a couple of minutes. Add the peppers and the pasta. Let it cook until the pasta is al dente. Put in bowl and heavily garnish with basil cut into ribbons. I originally just put some basil on as a garnish but we liked it so much that I added additional basil to the soup.