Location: My tiny kitchen
A mixed green salad with chanterelle and shitake mushrooms, jumbo scallops and pistachios.
I love mushrooms. From the ordinary everyday button mushroom to the fancy and insanely expensive black or white truffle, I cannot think of a kind that I don’t like. My favourite way to prepare them is to make them into a ragout, which is just a fancy term for sauteing the mushrooms with garlic, shallots, a small amount of stock or wine and cook until all the liquid has been reduced. Most mushrooms have a lot of flavour; the reduction simply intensifies and enhances the great flavour. Sometimes I serve the ragout as a side-dish to compliment a piece of perfectly seared steak, other times I put them on a patty to make a juicy mushroom hamburger. When ET and I want to have a light meal (yes, sometimes we do too!), I would mix up a plate of greens with the ragout. I’m not much of a salad eater, but when the salad has mushrooms, I can easily finish a plate 
This recipe serves 2 people.
- 10 medium-sized shitake mushrooms
- 10 medium-sized chanterelle mushrooms (or hedgehog if chanterelle is not in season)
- 30 pistachios, ready-to-eat, shells removed
- 4 jumbo scallops
- Mixed greens (as much as you like)
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- balsamic vinegar
- extra virgin olive oil
- sherry
1. Rinse the mushrooms. Remove the stalk of the shitake. Cut off the tip of the chanterelle stalks. Cut the mushrooms into pieces. You don’t need to cut them too small because they will shrink after they are cooked.
2. Heat a pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil. Saute the garlic. Put in the mushrooms. Put in 1/2 tsp of salt, black pepper and 3 tbsp of sherry. Let the mushroom cooked until all liquid has been reduced.
3. Using a paring knife, score criss-cross marks on the top and bottom of each scallop. Season the scallops with salt and pepper. Coat them with cornstarch, dust off excess. In a pan, put in 1 tbsp of butter. Once the butter has melted, place the scallops into the pan. Let the scallops seared over high heat for one minute for each side. After both sides have been seared to golden brown, cover the pan for 1.5 minutes and lower the heat to medium. The trick to have perfectly seared scallops is to not to move them too much during searing. The time noted here cooks the scallops to medium-well. If you want to cook the scallops fully, let them sit in the covered pan for 1 minute longer.
4. In a large bowl, put in 1/2 tsp of mustard. Put in 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar. Using a whisk, whisk in 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Once the olive oil has been completely incorporated with the vinegar, whisk in another 1 tbsp of olive oil. When the oil has been incorporated, whisk in another 1 tbsp. In the end, you will get a dressing that is an emulsion of olive oil and vinegar. Whisking the olive oil one tablespoonful at the time ensures the success. If you have more greens, you can make more dressing by using more vinegar and olive oil, as long as you follow the ration of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil.
5. Toss the greens in the dressing.
6. To assemble: place the greens on a plate. Add the mushroom ragout on top of the greens. Place the scallops on the salad and sprinkle pistachios all over it.
