24.02.08: Laksa with prawns and scallops

Sunday cooking for friends, with hastily snapped photos: Jamie Oliver's Laksa-style scallops served over rice noodles, accompanied by a salad of oven-dried tomatoes, fancy mozzarella, and a simple lemon vinaigrette. And for dessert: scoops of Green & Black's Vanilla ice cream plus some of the remaining margarita ice cream, topped with sliced strawberries and granadilla passionfruit.

HE SAYS: Scallops were perfectly seared, and had a delicate flavour - very tasty. The rice noodles could have been a little warmer, but the laksa broth was fragrant and I gladly mopped it up with a few pieces of French bread. I enjoyed the ice cream selection, especially the margarita one, with a few crushed Jules de Strooper almond thins.

SHE SAYS: I'm always up for some scallops, they're probably my favourite seafood treat. The laksa was light and tangy, less heavy than a normal curry. Agree noodles would have been nicer if piping hot. Thought the salad was particularly yummy with the intense thyme-infused tomatoes and subtle mozzarella. Two thumbs up on G&B's vanilla, though our own margarita effort more than held its own. Agree with Him, you can't go wrong with the almond thins.

01.02.08: Scallop and bacon pasta

An improvised Friday nite special: He topped the trofie pasta with scallops, a lone piece of bacon from the fridge, portobello mushrooms, canned chopped tomatoes, butter beans, some sun-dried tomato puree, and fresh parsely.

HE SAYS: Pasta was a little overcooked, but the sauce was very satisfying. Agree with Her that the scallops didn't add that much, think I'll stick to prawns for this dish. A very quick and easy meal to make on a Friday nite.

SHE SAYS: Tasty and satisfying, nice intensity of flavour in the sauce. Could have done without the formerly frozen scallops - not bad, just not great. It was good to try them, but I think with scallops fresh is distinctly better. I like the trofie pasta a lot.