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Prep time
10 minutes
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Cook time
20 minutes
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Serves
1
Author Notes
Over the years, my "TV dinners" have evolved and gained new meaning as I've grown more comfortable in the kitchen. Now they're simple, nutritious, premade dinners that are waiting for me in the freezer or fridge: say, a sheet-pan of spiced chicken thighs, a breaded and ready-to-fry cube steak, or a foil packet of sweet, plump scallops and rainbow chard. Premade means something different for everyone; for me, it means doing 90% of the work in advance, and leaving 10% (the cooking) to the very end. Not that the 90% here is very hard. You're just filling a large sheet of aluminum foil with a protein and a vegetable (in this case, the scallops and chard), sealing it, and saving it in the fridge to be baked off later in the week when you need a 15-minute meal in a flash.
The true star here is the caper-raisin butter that runs through the entire foil packet. I first read about this golden elixir in Tacos: Recipes and Provocations by Alex Stupack and Jordana Rothman, who got it from Jean-Georges Vongerichten. "This scallop preparation helped make JGV's flagship restaurant a sensation when it opened in 1997," they write in the recipe's headnote. I thought it was the strangest combination of ingredients and had to try it for myself. Now I keep a jar of the stuff in my fridge most weeks of the year. It tastes great with pasta, roasted cauliflower, raw bitter vegetables, and of course, scallops. —Eric Kim
Test Kitchen Notes
Featured in: Foil-Packet Scallops Are the Perfect TV Dinner for One. —The Editors
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Ingredients
- Foil-packet scallops
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3 cups
rainbow chard, rolled like a cigar and cut into 1/2-inch strips
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1 teaspoon
olive oil
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Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
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4 ounces
scallops (usually about 4 fat ones)
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1 tablespoon
caper-raisin butter, recipe follows
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White rice, for serving (optional)
- Caper-raisin butter
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2 tablespoons
non-pareil capers
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2 tablespoons
golden raisins
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1/4 cup
water
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3 tablespoons
unsalted butter
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1/2 teaspoon
malt vinegar
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Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions
- Foil-packet scallops
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Preheat oven to 400°F.
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Place rainbow chard in the center of a large rectangular sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle over olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper.
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Top the chard with scallops. Smear the caper-raisin butter over each scallop, then season with more salt and pepper.
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Fold over each side of the aluminum foil until you have an enclosed square packet. Place on a sheet pan and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the scallops are just cooked through.
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Serve with optional white rice and an ice-cold beer.
- Caper-raisin butter
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Boil the capers, raisins, and water together for about 10 minutes, until the raisins have plumped up and water has reduced significantly.
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Puree in a food processor with the butter, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Store in a jar or container with a tightly fitted lid, refrigerated, for up to a week. Tastes great with scallops, pasta, roasted cauliflower, and raw bitter vegetables.
Eric Kim was the Table for One columnist at Food52. He is currently working on his first cookbook, KOREAN AMERICAN, to be published by Clarkson Potter in 2022. His favorite writers are William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, and Ernest Hemingway, but his hero is Nigella Lawson. You can find his bylines at The New York Times, where he works now as a writer. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @ericjoonho.
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