Grilled Sea Scallops Served on an Onion-Fennel Confit with an Orange Reduction

The great thing about this recipe (other than the taste) is that you can make the confit and the reduction a day or two in advance and just heat them over low heat before serving; making it a great party recipe since it only takes 5 minutes to grill up scallops and plate before getting back to the party yourself.

The below amounts make 4 servings (with a little leftover reduction and confit).

Orange Reduction
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice

1. In a saucepan, bring the orange juice to a low boil.

2. Reduce to a simmer and let the juice reduce until there's only about 1/4 cup remaining (will be the consistency of NyQuil and it takes about 40-50 minutes depending on your simmer heat). Be sure to check in routinely to make sure your juice doesn't boil over.

Onion-Fennel Confit (adapted from Thomas Keller's Bouchon)

I truly think fennel is the most underrated vegetable. I'm an anise hater by nature (no black licorice, no sambuca, etc.), but I love fennel since it's a more subtle, fresher flavor. And once cooked it's sweeter with barely a trace of the anise flavor. Trust me, try it. I served it to a table of black licorice haters and they all ate it up.

Ingredients:
2 bulbs of fennel, thinly sliced
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter
5 sprigs parsley, 5 sprigs thyme, 5 sprigs chives, 1 bay leaf (bundled in cheesecloth)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Add 1/4 warm water to a large saucepan over low heat. Add butter and whisk until butter melts.

2. Add fennel, onion, herb bunch and pinch of salt. Stir together. Place a piece of parchment paper tightly over the vegetables and tear a hole the size of a quarter in the center (essentially you are steaming the veggies slowly.

3. Over the most minimum of simmers you will cook the mixture for 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes. Steam will rise out of the hole in the parchment paper, but the vegetables will not brown.

4. Add any additional salt and pepper to taste.

Once you're done the veggies will be super soft. If there's a lot of liquid left in the pot, raise the heat a little to boil it down. Once the mixture cools you can refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Grilled Sea Scallops
4 large sea scallops, halved
1 lemon, halved

1. Place a grill pan over very high heat.

2. Pat down your scallops before grilling.

3. To go against everything you've ever read, heard, done...I threw the scallops right onto the screaming hot grill pan. No oil, no salt, no pepper. There will be enough flavor in the other ingredients that I really wanted the scallop to just shine for what it is.

4. Light brown grill marks will appear. Grill for no more than 2 minutes a side. You will see the scallop turn from translucent to a pearly white when it is cooked. If you put your finger in the middle there will be some give (not too squishy and not too hard; how's that for precise?).

5. Grill the lemons, cut side down until dark grill marks appear (this caramelizes the lemon making the juice sweeter).

To serve:
On a plate, place 1/4 cup of the onion-fennel confit. On top place two grilled scallop halves. Drizzle with 3-4 Tablespoons of the orange reduction. Quarter the lemon and place one-quarter on each plate. Encourage everyone to squeeze lemon over the whole dish to brighten and lighten some of the deep the flavors.