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Talk about fusion! This is a great mix of sea and land; Indian and Italian. This makes a great appetizer, although if served with a nice salad it could probably make a complete meal. It’s rather rich, so balance it with an intense wine, such as Viña Chocálan Carmenère.

Ingredients

• 1/4 C brown rice
• 1/2 C chicken stock
• 1/2 C white wine
• 1/2 t turmeric
• 1/2 t ground coriander
• cayenne pepper (to taste)
• 1/4  C grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 T semolina flour (or cornflour)
• 1 T ground cumin
• 6 sea scallops
• 2 T extra virgin olive oil
• 10-20 whole pink peppercorns

Directions

Put the brown rice in a sauce pan and add enough chicken stock and wine to cover. Turn the the heat to high until the liquid starts to bubble, then turn down to medium to medium high. Stir periodically and add more liquid as it starts to cook down. When you’ve added all the wine and stock, simply use water. It should take about 30 minutes for the rice to cook and there should be a little liquid left.

(Optional: instead of adding ground coriander in the next step you could substitute a 1/4 t of whole coriander, but roast it in the sauce pan before you add the rice and liquids.)

Add the turmeric, coriander, and cayenne pepper. Mix thoroughly. Then add the Parmesan cheese and stir well. Set this aside while you cook the scallops.

Mix the semolina flour and cumin powder on a plate. Roll the scallops in the mixture till covered.

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat until a drop of water dances on the surface. Place the scallops in the pan. Sear for 2 minutes on each side, then cook to your level of doneness.

While the scallops are cooking, make pillows out of the risotto with about a tablespoon. Place the cooked scallops on top of the pillows and between 5 – 10 pink peppercorns inbetween. Garnish with cilantro.

Serves two.

On a recent trip to Mexico, we stayed at an all-inclusive resort called Bahia Principe near Tulum. One of my favorite parts of the trip was going to their amazing restaurants, Arlequin and Don Pablo’s. They are a MUST if you go there.

At these restaurants I was introduced to lovely pink peppercorns. These are a bit of a misnomer as they are not actually peppercorns. They are dried berries from the Schinus terebinthifolius plant. Once I got past my initial assumption that they were dried lady bugs, I fell in love.

This spice can be ground or served whole. It has a delicate flavor that balances a little bit of spice with a little bit of sweet. It is wonderful when mixed with citrus, particularly lemon, or dry white wines. It also makes a perfect foil to creamy, rich foods, such as cream cheese or an Alfredo sauce.

There was a little bit of controversy over this spice, and for a while said to be toxic by the FDA. The berry comes from a plant that is related to a pest species in the Southern US, called Brazilian Pepper or Florida Holly. Some people may have alergic reactions. Therefore, it’s good to know who you’re serving this to, and if they have any alergies to things like poison ivy. I’ve used about 10 for one serving and felt fine. Enjoy in moderation, but definitely enjoy.