You never know what will get a response from people. A healthy salad drew the largest response I’ve ever gotten from my Good Grits column, mostly folks asking about my health and wondering where the bacon was. This week’s remedy for what ails you combines nice fresh greens with fresh scallops and a vinaigrette made with a flavorful cut of our friend the pig.
Scallop & Spinach Salad With Asian Bacon Vinaigrette
- 4
Ingredients:
Scallop & Spinach Salad
- 4 jumbo sea scallops
- 1 pound baby spinach, rinsed and dried
- 8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced thin
- 4 tablespoons minced red onion
- 16 carrot batons
Salt and pepper
1 bottle Casa Lapostolle Sauvignon Blanc
Asian Bacon Vinaigrette
- 12 pieces applewood-smoked bacon
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger root
- 1 tablespoon minced shallots
- 1 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons mirin
- 3 ounces orange juice
- 2 cups olive oil
Instructions:
Pop the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and pour yourself a glass. Start this recipe by
breaking out grandma’s cast iron skillet. Fry the bacon over medium heat; when it’s
done, remove, leaving the vitamin G in the pan. Chop the bacon, mince the onion, cut
carrots into batons, slice the mushrooms and reserve all. Then mince the fresh ginger and
shallots. Combine ginger, shallots, vinegar, mirin and OJ in a food processor and leave it
alone for a second.
To set up the salad, divide the spinach onto four plates and top with equal shares of
mushrooms and carrots. Begin reheating the leftover vitamin G in the skillet.
Go ahead and corral the troops and pour wine for everybody, because this goes
down fairly quick. Ease the warmed-up (not too hot) vitamin G into the food processor;
put the skillet back on the burner at high heat. Tumble 1/2 of the chopped bacon into the
processor, turn it on and drizzle in olive oil. Salt and pepper scallops, drop into hot skillet and sear for 2 minutes a side. Place scallops on salads, ladle on bacon dressing and
sprinkle with red onion and remaining chopped bacon. Serve.