French Fridays With Dorie - Scallops With Caramel Orange Sauce

This week's French Fridays With Dorie's recipe was her Scallops with Caramel Orange Sauce. Originally, I thought about not doing it because I'm not a huge fan of navel oranges. Then I went to the seafood counter to check out the salmon for a ravioli dish I wanted to make. A little pricey for me, so I decided to wait. When I walked past the ready-to-grab seafood cooler, I noticed little containers of bay scallops, ready to be thrown into a pan and consumed. I picked up a small amount, just in case I didn't like the sauce. I forgot to check the recipe to see what was actually in the sauce, but I figured I would grab the scallops now and figure it out later.

When I got home, it was dinnertime. It was too late to really cook anything (read: too tired and hungry). Then I find myself staring at these scallops. Well they were already thawed. I looked up the recipe and realized it didn't take long to make these at all. Even Dorie says "it takes less time to make than a hamburger." The sauce is made up of sugar, dry white wine, and orange juice. I had sugar. Didn't have the wine so I used a sweet peach chardonnay. For the orange juice, I used blood oranges.

I had to make two attempts at the sauce. First time, I let the sugar cook too long, and the caramel got too dark. Then when I was adding the butter at the end, I put in too much. You see, I cut the recipe in half but forgot about halving the butter. Whoops.

The scallops...I guess sea scallops are way bigger than bay scallops? Because mine were definitely tiny. Regardless, I enjoyed this dinner. At least now I have a quick, elegant dinner recipe I can put together at the last-minute.

As per Dorie's request, FFWD participants do not publish the recipes on their blogs. Rather, it is encouraged to purchase Around My French Table. I do highly recommend buying this book and joining us every Friday to try another delicious recipe.