Spiced Sea Scallops & Shrimp Gyoza

Last night was a great experience in my lab (the kitchen). I initially wanted a rice noodle soup with viggies and gyozas (thai dumplings). That obviously changed. Instead, I took some sea scallops I had from Wholefoods and sliced them in half giving me about 8 scallops (I had 4 scallops to start with). I rubbed them with an indian spice mixture for fish (*Shan Fish Seasoning) and some extra virgin olive oil and allowed them to sit while I made everything else.

I then started on the spinach sauce which consist of Organic frozen spinach(wholefood 365 Brand) that were blanched in about 1/2 cup of water. I added the spinach and liquid to the blender with 2 chopped onions, 2 tablespoons of minced garlic, ground cardamom, Shans Curry Dal seasoning, non-dairy cream cheese (Tofutti Brand), coconut milk (1 can), kosher salt to taste and a pinch of REAL cayenne pepper. Blend for a few seconds and - BAM!

Once the sauce was done, I fried the shrimp gyoza's from Trader Joes (which is one of my absolute favorite thing to eat, seriously). Once they were almost done, I then started to heat up my pan and added a little olive oil and seared the scallops to get a nice color without overcooking, and Viola! A beautiful dinner and tasty sauce.

An A++ for Ekta Restaurant

Philadelphia has a newly discovered restaurant that is a great Authentic Indian treat:

Ekta
250 E. Girard Ave
215-426-2277
http://ektaindiancuisine.com/

Ekta is in the Fishtown area in Philly and if your visiting its a must go. If you live in Philly and love Indian Food - Real Indian Food, its worth the trip. The Chef that is there cooking up all the mouth water flavourful dishes just happen to be Raju Bhattarai who is the chef/owner of Ekta. He's also Tiffin's former executive chef.

Their food is a must try; big satisfying flavourful portions at an affordable cost. Come on, you have no excuse. They have a diningroom in the works, but until then there are two tables there for those who can wait to get home to savour the spiced-flavour of the best Authentic Indian Food in Philadelphia and possibly the Tri-State area.