Maine Diver Scallops

From Murder Uncorked
Michele Scott

For this dish try Estancia Pinnacles Pinot Noir. This wine is fruity with ripe cherry and strawberry layered with sweet oak and aromas of dried flowers, leaf and spice. It leaves has a silky mouthfeel and leaves a long finish.

Ingredients:
2-½ tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
8 Fresh Maine Diver Scallops
1 cup Shitake or Oyster mushrooms cut into large pieces
4 tbsp leeks cut into julienne strips
½ cup shallots, minced
1 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
2 lemons
½ cup tomato peeled, seeded and finely diced
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp white pepper
2 tbsp Armanac, or brandy or cognac
1 Cup heavy cream
½ tsp Balsamic vinegar

Heat one teaspoon of the olive oil in a medium skillet over high heat. Add garlic and sauté until golden brown. Add leaks, mushrooms, and shallots and cook for two minutes, seasoning with kosher salt, thyme and pepper. Deglaze the pan with Armanac and fresh lemon, reducing by half. Add heavy cream and reduce until the cream thickens as a glaze. Remove the ragout into separate bowl. Add the scallops to the skillet, and cook for about three minutes on each side. Place the ragout on dinner plates, top with the scallops. Drizzle Balsamic over the top.

Makes either 4 appetizers or serves 2 as a dinner entrée.

Murder Uncorked
Michele Scott

Recipes and wine pairings included!

Nikki has just set foot on Napa Valley's rich soil when she realizes her new job may not be as safe as she thought. First off, Derek Malveaux is disconcertingly sexy. Second, his top winemaker is dead in the bushes outside Nikki's cottage. It doesn't take a connoisseur of foul play to know something's taken a terrible turn...

Nikki Sands was like every other aspiring actress—waiting tables between jobs. But Nikki had taken serving wines to heart. She knew enough to impress Napa Valley's golden boy, Derek Malveaux, who offered her a job at his vineyard. And though Nikki may have left her dreams of stardom behind, the world of wine is ripe with intrigue—and the seeds of sleuthing are planted...

(The First Wine Lover's Mystery)
Berkley , October 2005
244 pages ISBN: 042520684X
Paperback
$6.99

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