Shattering lentil illusions...

One down, the rest of the book to go!

The recipe for day one was pan-fried scallops with lentils, crispy pancetta and lemon crème fraiche.

My Sunday was spent sleeping in, reading a book and going to the movies with Dad pre-dinner. Unfortunately I left my shopping spree a little late in the d ay and found myself on the wrong side of a locked door at my local fish shop, quickly followed by a distinct lack of scallops in the seafood section of the supermarket. A quick call to Dad – have you left home (yes), have you gone past your fish shop (yes) where the hell am I going to get scallops (why did you leave it so late in the day)??? He kindly offered to duck into the supermarket on his way to the cinema and when I called back to ask for sage as well (yes, yes, very unorganised!), Dad hadn’t managed to get scallops, but had got some green prawns instead. As grateful as I was that he’d made the effort to substitute, there was no way I was going to cook the first recipe in my experiment with the key ingredient missing. So I quickly jumped back in my car, heading in the opposite direction to the cinema, on a mad dash for scallops. Skipping ahead, I had success on sourcing scallops and we both enjoyed the movie!

As far as the meal itself, I’ll be honest and say I’ve never really been a fan of lentils – I’m OK with beans but lentils not so much – which I think contributed to my choosing this recipe to start on. Get the lentils out of the way early on, y’know. But when you simmer lentils with a bay leaf, whole garlic cloves and a few other tasty ingredients, the y are actually a very pleasant legume. Even Dad was impressed. The scallops, with their sweetness (I’ve always liked that about scallops) combined with the tartness of crème fraiche with lemon all combined to be a very surprising taste sensation. OK, maybe not so surprising, he is Jamie Oliver after all. And just as an aside, the asparagus were also pan fried and I am definitely going to use that method of cooking asparagus again – amazing.

I’m happy to say, day one was a success. And I’m happy to have brought Dad along for the ride. You can check out his top photography here as well.

Xx

PS – did I mention that we enjoyed the prawns as a tasty starter? Pan-fried with garlic & soy sauce. Yum.