An Island Christmas

Bacon Wrapped Scallops with Remoulade

Handmade pasta with Crab, Shrimp, Creme Fraiche, Lemon and Tarragon

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Warm Spiked Honey Glaze

White Chocolate Truffles

Fresh Pasta Dough

yield: 2 servings

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ teaspoon sea salt

  Making fresh pasta dough is fun and very easy. Traditionally, the dough is mixed directly on a board or counter but it is acceptable to begin the dough in a bowl to limit the cleanup. Laminate counter tops are fine for kneading dough but natural or engineered stone is best as it is non-porous and maintains constant temperature, especially important when working with yeast doughs.

  In a bowl or on a countertop, combine the salt and flour. Using your fingers, create a well in the center of the mound, being sure that the well’s walls are equally thick and high. In a separate container, combine eggs and olive oil. Scramble eggs with a fork to incorporate oil.

  Add 1/3 of egg/oil mixture to center of well. Using a swirling motion, pull flour from inner walls of well into eggs and mix until it forms a thick paste. If working on a countertop, be careful not to break through the walls of the well as egg will run out over the work surface. When center is no longer runny, add half of remaining egg mixture and stir to paste. Add remaining liquid and repeat. Continue to mix until fork is no longer effective and then turn dough out onto work surface.

  Knead dough by flattening, folding it in half and pressing hard with the palm of your hand. Rotate 90’ and repeat over and over until dough is a consistent color (no patches of flour or egg mixture) and begins to feel springy. Pasta dough should be visibly bumpy but soft and smooth to the touch. To test, press a finger into dough. The depression made by your finger should spring back almost entirely. Flatten dough into a disk 1 ½ inches thick, wrap with saran and place in cooler to rest for 20-30 minutes or until finger divot does not bounce back. This means that the gluten that was excited in the kneading process has relaxed and the dough is ready to be rolled and cut.

 Bacon wrapped scallops with remoulade

  Yield: 2

6 scallops

2 slices bacon, cut into thirds, par cooked

Remoulade: Yield, 1 cup

1 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons mustard

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon Louisiana-style hot sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons capers, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon mild paprika

1 scallion, finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

 On a paper towel, lay scallops down and wrap in bacon. Use a tooth pick or piece of pasta to seal bacon.

In a small bowl combine all remoulade ingredients together and set aside.

In a small skillet over medium heat add oil. Once shimmering add scallops and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook for 30 seconds. Using your tongs to ensure the bacon is cooked by touching it to the bottom of the skillet. Remove and serve with sauce.

 Pasta with Crab, Shrimp, Crème Fraiche, Lemon and Tarragon

  Yield: 2

1 tablespoon oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 small shallot, finely chopped

1 small garlic clove, finely grated

1 8-ounce container crème fraiche, room temperature or sour cream

Kosher salt

6 ounces fresh or dried fettuccine

½ cup crab

6 shrimp

½ lemon zested and juiced

½ cup tarragon leaves or 2 tablespoons dried

 ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

 Heat oil and butter in a medium skillet over medium. Cook shallot and garlic, stirring often, until soft and golden, about 4 minutes. Add in crème fraiche and cook until mixture is slightly thickened, about 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in a pot of boiling salted water.  Drain, reserving ½ cup pasta cooking liquid. Using tongs, transfer pasta to skillet with sauce and add crabmeat. Finely grate zest from lemon over pasta and squeeze in about 1 tsp. juice. Cook pasta, tossing constantly and thinning sauce with a few tablespoonful’s of pasta cooking liquid if needed, until pasta is glossy and sauce is the consistency of heavy cream, about 3 minutes. Add tarragon, season with salt, and toss a few more times to wilt tarragon. Transfer pasta to a plate and sprinkle with red pepper flakes

 Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Warm Spiked Honey Glaze

  Yield: 2

½ pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed, halved

2 tablespoons oil

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons honey

2 ounces liquor

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1 tablespoon butter

1 scallions, thinly sliced on a diagonal

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

 Preheat oven to 450°F.

 Toss Brussels sprouts and oil in a large bowl; season with salt and black pepper.

Arrange Brussels sprouts, cut side down, on baking sheet. Roast until tender and deeply browned, 20–25 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring honey to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring often, until honey is a deep amber color but not burnt (it will be foamy), about 3 minutes. Remove from heat; add vinegar, liquor and red pepper flakes, if using, and whisk until sauce is smooth (it will bubble quite aggressively when you first add the vinegar). Set saucepan over medium heat, add butter, salt, and cook, whisking constantly, until glaze is glossy, bubbling, and slightly thickened, about 4 minutes.

Add glaze to Brussel sprouts and toss to coat. Transfer to a platter and top with scallions and lemon zest

 White chocolate truffles

  Yield: 8

8 tablespoons butter, cubed

2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

18 ounces white candy coating, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

Coarse or confectioners’ sugar

 In top of a double boiler or a metal bowl over barely simmering water, melt butter into cream; remove from heat. Gradually add candy coating, stirring continuously with rubber spatula until candy coating begins to melt. Return to heat; stir constantly until mixture is smooth. Stir in confectioners’ sugar. (If mixture separates, beat with a mixer for 30 seconds.) Pour into an 8-in. square pan. Chill for 20 minutes or until slightly hardened.

Using a melon baller or spoon, scoop out and shape into 1-in. balls. Roll in coarse sugar.