McCormick's Hot Seafood Salad

To my loyal fans, I am not ignoring you but there is a lot to explore in a new place. Saturday we went to the new Farmer’s Market that is just getting off the ground in the Old Mill. The one vegetable vendor was very disappointing. He had good looking potatoes, but the spring onions and kale did not look good. That was all the vegetables he had. We bought steaks from the beef vendor that is a no additive, only grass feed vendor. The chicken people were not present, but they are to return next week. We now have two dog treat vendors. Max says, oh boy! After getting home we made dog food all day. Then we put on our best yachting getups and set off for an event at the Docks called Cheeseburgers in Paradise. It was delightfully cool down at the marina on the lake and we had the best hot dogs I have ever tasted. They had one of those frosty drink makers. They made great pina coladas and margaritas. Then today we went to brunch at the club. It is a huge operation. We will definitely take anyone who is here on a Sunday to this brunch. Everything I ate was perfectly executed. And if it wasn’t there in the 4 long rows of food, it does not exist. Biscuits, gravy, sausage, ham, roast beef, omelets to order, eggs Benedict, waffles, pancakes, fried chicken, hash, grits, potatoes, 2 kinds of fish, every salad you can imagine, bagels with cream cheese, lox, smoked salmon, all the fixings , shrimp cocktail, and more. The dessert table was beyond belief. Jim got some carrot and I believe it is the best carrot cake I have ever tasted. Next time I go, I am starting with dessert first. Jim is still working in the yard and it is way after dinner time. I will feed him soup or popcorn if he is hungry later.
I did cook Thursday night. I really wanted scallops and found the above mentioned salad in my Dungeness Crabs and Blackberry Cobblers Cookbook. I got this book a million years ago when I was sent to Seattle by Merrill Lynch. It won the James Beard Best Cookbook Award. The author says this recipe comes from McCormick’s Fish House and Bar in Portland, OR. This is just 2 servings and I was really worried it would not fill Jim up, but it did.
Ingredients:
3-4 C torn greens (We used the last of our lettuce fresh out of Pam’s Garden and spring greens from the store.
1T corn oil or 1 oz bacon drippings (found out I did not have corn oil so I used the bacon drippings. How did I determine, one oz.? I poured out all the drippings after frying the bacon and just left a glisten in the skillet bottom. It may or may not have been one oz.
2-3 oz white or yellow onion, peeled and cut into julienne strips (about ¼ onion)
3-4 oz zucchini, cut into julienne strips (I used my hand held julienne slicer I bought in France. It looks like a peeler only the blade is saw tooth.)
4 meaty slices bacon, cooked until crisp, drained, and crumbled
1 t salt
½ t white pepper (Just a hint, I almost never use white pepper.
3 oz scallops (4 sea scallops) I used frozen thawed
Dash of lemon
1 whole tomato, chopped
3 oz. shrimp (again just 4) I used frozen thawed
¼ C grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
1. Equally divide the torn greens between 2 dinner plates and set aside.
2. Heat a pan with the oil or drippings and add the onion, zucchini, and cooked bacon. Sauté for 1 minute and season with salt and pepper. Add the scallops and sauté for another minute, sprinkling with a dash of lemon juice. Add the chopped tomato and shrimp and sauté for 20-30 seconds. When your shrimp are evenly pink it is done.
3. I took the shrimp and scallops out of the mixture and arranged the rest of the mixture over the greens. I then set the seafood on top of the salad and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.