Seafood › Seared Scallops w/ Orange Reduction & Fennel

Serves 1 as an appetizer (you can easily double this recipe)

• canola oil (for coating the bottom of your pans)
• 3-4 sea scallops, seasoned with salt & pepper
• 1 large handful baby spinach
• 1 large handful chopped fennel
• 3 tbsp butter (1 for searing scallops, 2 for orange reduction sauce)
• 8 oz fresh-squeezed orange juice
• salt & pepper to taste
• 3-4 raspberries for garnish

You will be multi-tasking with 2 pans in order to have all the components ready at the same time. Very easy though. Don't worry!

1. Preheat oven to 375º
2. Season scallops with salt and pepper
3. Add canola oil to coat bottom of 2 pans on medium-high flame. You will use one pan to sear the scallops and the other to cook the fennel and spinach
4. Add fennel to one pan (avoid flame flare-ups up by patting dry the fennel)
5. Add handful of baby spinach and a pinch of salt to that same pan. Cook for a couple of minutes (toss a couple of times with tongs or with a flip of the wrist like Andrea)
6. In the other hot pan, sear the scallops. Cook them about 3 minutes each side until browned and semi-firm (don't overcook or the scallops will get tough)
7. Place the spinach and fennel in the middle of a plate and garnish with raspberries on the outer corners
8. Finish the scallops in the oven - 375º degrees for 1-2 minutes
9. Pour out the leftover butter and oil from the scallop pan, place back on the stove on a medium-high flame and pour the orange juice into the pan
10. Add 2 tbsp butter to the pan
11. Reduce orange juice sauce until it's thick but not yet brown (you can transfer the sauce to another hot pan if you want to speed up the reduction process)
12. Plate the scallops on top of the fennel and spinach, pour the sauce over the plated dish and serve