Pan Sear Scallops with Green Cauliflowr and Potato Puree

WOW, is all I can say for this amazing dinner, the puree is so delicious the scallops ended up taking a backseat.  We have been making the San Mateo Farmers Market a Saturday morning family ritual, I picked up a beautiful head of organic green cauliflower for like $1.50, I had to have it.  I have never cooked with it before and although I LOVE cauliflower I am not a fan of its bland color.  The first night I took half of the head, cut into small florets and lightly boiled them (they still had a lot of crunch), delicious!  The next night I had a craving for scallops, this recipe is the result of that craving and the need to use up the other half of the green cauliflower.  Scallops are tricky little buggers to cook, I cannot tell you how much money I have wasted on scallops that needed to be thrown away due to the "silly putty" effect..LOL  Fresh scallops are best of course but, they are hard to come by, if you do use frozen it is necessary to blot dry the scallop and make sure you get as much liquid out of it as possible, salt and pepper and let sit until your pan is ready.  

Ingredients for Puree:

1/2 head green cabbage

5 whole cloves garlic

2 peeled potatoes

Chicken broth (I used about 1/2 a qt, use as much or little as you like)

salt and pepper to taste

cayenne to taste (totally unnecessary but I like a little kick)

Steam potatoes with the whole garlic and seasonings, when potatoes are tender add cauliflower, cauliflower does not take long to steam but you want it SOFT.

Place potato/cauliflower mix into a food processor, add chicken broth until you get a nice thick and very creamy consistency, season again to taste...Be prepared to go back many times to taste, because its THAT GOOD...:)  Transfer to saucepan, you can add a little half and half if you like but it really does not need it, place on low and allow to heat up while you prepare the scallops.

Heat pan, add olive oil, place scallops in a circle, cook aprox. 2 minutes on one side (you want a nice caramelized color) flip and 2 minutes on the other.. I typically will sacrifice a scallop to test to see if they are ready, they should be easy to cut with a knife and not chewy at all!  Scallops take time to learn how to cook, I suggest checking out a youtube video if you want to make sure you don't mess it up..:)