Creamy Shrimp and Scallop Scampi

As many of you know, I am a kitchen hog. MC asked me to to go get scallops, and well, I felt like I wanted to contribute a dish at the house of the parental units. Momma C doesn't mind as its something less that she would have to cook. JC doesn't mind either because its something more he can taste and its "damn good iggy". Love those two.

Normally, scampi is in a butter sauce with white wine and parsley. I opted to change it up as I wanted a creamy sauce that everyone would love.

So we ended up having a seafood feast along with some baked potato, fried shrimp and salad. Nothing like great food with great people!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter
1 tsp olive oil
3 tsp lemon juice (fresh squeezed is better)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 a small onion, minced
1 1/2 lb sea scallops
1 lb shrimp
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp sour cream
1 tsp cornstarch
4 large basil leaves
Fresh ground pepper and salt to taste

Clean, peel and devein the shrimp. When cooking a dish like this, I don't like to leave the tails on. Place off to the side. Pat scallops dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Place this off to the side.

In a large pan, add the olive oil and butter. Add the garlic to the pan. Don't overcook the garlic as you want the flavor meld with the olive oil/butter mixture.

While the garlic is cooking, mince some onion. Cook until it is somewhat translucent. Take out of the pan making sure you drain the fat from the onion and garlic.

While the onion is cooking, start to cut the lemons in halves. Also, julienne the basil and parsley. Place this into a small bowl off to the side. Separate another small amount of each so you can use it for garnish.

 

 

Place shrimp and scallops in butter and saute until scallops are opaque, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Take off the heat of the pan and place in a warm flat plate. Notice that if the scallops are slightly caramelized, then flip them over. I will allow them to be taken off the heat in the separate sheet. Try to avoid getting the scallops and shrimp too overcooked. Then you would end up with rubbery seafood. No Bueno!

 

In the pan, add the white wine to pan juice. Now if you don't have any dry white wine, any other white wine is fine as long as its not a dessert wine. I made the mistake once of doing that. It made the pasta dish really sweet. Don't get me wrong, it was ok, but I had to add cayenne in order to kick it up with some heat.

Add the herbs and spices to the mixture. Allow to continue to cook. Keep note that it might start to dissipate. Add more white wine or stock.

 
Dissolve cornstarch in the stock and add along with heavy and sour cream to the pan. Simmer until thickened.

Add the shrimp and scallops back onto the pan making sure that the sauce completely covers the  garnish with basil sprigs.

I really do like this over some angel hair pasta. You can have this in multiple ways. It's all dependent on what you are hunkering for. Enjoy the recipe!