Scallops and Salmon with a Cranberry and Nut Sauce

Among the first recipes I tried out on Step by Step in the Kitchen was a quick and easy dish with beautiful red highlights provided by a homemade raspberry sauce and tender sautéd scallops from the sea.

After over a year of blogging, I’ve been reminiscing about past culinary creations and feeling the urge to retry and perhaps recreate many of them -- which is what I did on January 14 with Grilled Turkey-Olive Burgers.

Then I re-read one of my most popular posts -- Raspberry Scallops -- and knew I just had to make it again. That very night. But, wait, I already had a salmon fillet thawing. I could wait, or I could combine. I decided to combine the two creatures of the sea.

What about the raspberries? Why did I change that ingredient to cranberries? Because I could. Why pay a fortune, this time of year, for raspberries when I already have several pounds of raw cranberries in the freezer.

Okay, so I wanted to follow up on a successful recipe with some changes. Add salmon to the mix. I could have done it with the salmon alone, but instead I took off for Wegmans supermarket and bought six large scallops at $17.99 per pound. Wow! On the other hand, I did save money by not purchasing raspberries.

While at the store I noticed there were still bins full of unshelled nuts (I usually only notice them at Christmas time), so I decided to add one more ingredient to this re-creation.

SCALLOPS AND SALMON WITH A CRANBERRY AND NUT SAUCE

Ingredients...

6 large sea scallops
6 oz. salmon fillet cut into 5-6 strips
salt & pepper
1-/12 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 tablespoon brown sugar
zest of 1 lemon or 1 orange
juice of 1/2 lemon or 1/2 orange
2/3 cups cranberries
1/4 cup walnut halves and almonds

Directions...

1. Pat scallops and salmon fillet dry and lightly salt & pepper each side.

2. Melt butter and EVOO in fry pan over medium heat.

3. Saute fish fillets 2-3 minutes then turn them over. Add scallops and cook 1-1/2 minutes on each side. Lower heat if they are cooking too fast. Do not overcook.

4. Remove pan from heat; lower heat to medium-low. Remove scallops and salmon and arrange on two dinner plates. (Both will continue cooking.)

5. Return pan to heat and stir in brown sugar, zest, juice and cranberries.

6. Cook 3-5 minutes until cranberries soften.

7. Spoon sauce over scallops and salmon.

8. Scatter nuts on top.