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These scallops with spicy curry sauce and couscous is a recreation of a dish I had in Nashville at Silly Goose.
Have you guys heard about the crazy radiation that’s slowly making its way over to the U.S. from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan that was damaged in 2011 when the gigantic tsunami hit their city? I was reading this report online about how West Coast folks are getting more and more susceptible to radiation and more people will get cancer and more marine life will start to die off. Part of the reason why the salmon season was kind of bad this year, they say, was because of all this radiation in the water so the salmon couldn’t spawn as many babies or reproduce as many. Some of the seafood that has been tested has shown that the some of the seafood in the U.S. contain way higher amounts/concentrations of radiation than allowed.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, Jason and I are getting all nervous about eating seafood these days. We LOVE sushi and we LOVE our salmon, but we’re like OMG RADIATION!!! Haha, we’re weird. But no seriously, it’s all I think about when I go buy seafood. I look at the origin and if it’s from the west coast, I tend to shy away from it. But then, I’m like where else can you get decent seafood?! Plus, our paranoia is probably overrated. They likely test this stuff before they put it in markets, but we’re just all like omg end of the world! Not trying to freak anyone out here, but I figured since I was posting a seafood dish today, I’d bring that up.
OK, sooooooo, remember back in July when I went to Nashville? And how my friends and I ate at this restaurant called Silly Goose and we had this AMAZING ridiculously awesome dish called “King Kong Couscous,” and I said I had already recreated it and was going to post it on the blog “soon?” Yeah, so “soon” totally meant November. Haha, I’m SO bad. I really honestly meant to post it way sooner but I had all these other awesome posts that I wanted to share so this post kept getting pushed back.
I also would’ve named this dish, “King Kong Couscous,” but honestly, does that sound appetizing to you? Would you really have clicked over? Maybe because you were intrigued by the name and wanted to see what it really was, but other than that, probably not. So I renamed it to something a bit more…plain and refined.
The spicy curry sauce was pretty close to what Silly Goose’s sauce actually is, and we loved it all over the dish – it made a ton so I just jarred it up in a mason jar and we ended up dipping chips in it as a dip (don’t hate ’til you try it!!). The couscous was spot-on and I replaced the shrimp with scallops just ’cause I felt fancy. The couscous is infused with sesame oil so it’s kind of like an Asian twist on the entire dish. Super delish – I think you’ll LOVE it!!
Scallops with Spicy Curry Sauce and Couscous
Ingredients
For the sauce
- 13.66 ounce (387 ml) can of coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ¼ teaspoon curry powder
- 1 ½ tablespoon sriracha sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the couscous
- 1 cup (173 g) instant couscous
- 2 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 cup (237 ml) water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
- 8 large scallops
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt + pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together coconut milk, cumin, coriander, curry powder, sriracha, and salt. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan, bring the cup of water and sesame oil to a boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat then stir the couscous in and cover pot. Let sit for 10-15 minutes then take a fork and fluff the couscous and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp. of salt and parsley. Keep warm.
- In a skillet, heat up the olive oil over medium high heat. Place scallops in the pan, it should be a nice sizzle. Season the tops of the scallops with salt and pepper (a pinch of each). Sear scallops until browned on either side, about 3-4 minutes on each side. You don’t want to overcook it or it’ll be too tough.
- To assemble the dish, scoop couscous onto a plate, place scallops on top, then drizzle curry sauce all over the top.
Made these tonight. Swapped out regular coconut milk for light and used olive oil instead of sesame in the couscous. The flavor was incredible, but next time I’ll just use regular coconut milk. The sauce was so thin I could probably get 10 servings out of it. Other than that, A+.
I’m making this recipe for my boyfriend and I tonight. I went to 3 supermarkets looking for Ground Coriander with no luck. After doing some research online, I found that I can substitute it with cumin. So I will add extra cumin and hope it comes out good :)
You can get ground coriander and ground cumin from any indian store. Btw, I couldn’t have the sauce without boiling it, it brought out the flavor of all the spices and was amazing!!! Such an easy recipe and lots of happy people in my house :)
One of our new favorite recipes. Making it again tonight.
Made this tonight, and it was so good. Thank you for the great recipe; my husband and I both loved it!
So glad to hear you and your husband loved it! :)
Do you think it would work with light coconut milk?
Should be ok!
Thanks! I was afraid it might be too thin. Love your recipes. When I saw the scallops, I wanted to make them that instant!
I just made this for dinner for my husband and me tonight and we both liked it. I don’t always read the blog that goes with the recipe due to time, but I’m glad I read that you have left over sauce to use for later. I was going to dump all of it over the 2 servings and I thought that seemed like a lot. I wasn’t sure how much to use so I went with 1/4 cup of sauce over each serving. Good recipe and quick and easy.
I’m so glad you and your husband enjoyed this dish and definitely use the sauce for other things :) I like to dip veggies in it sometimes!
Wow, I googled for a curry scallop recipe hoping to make it with couscous and I found this! It very rarely happens that we find exactly what we’re looking for, and we have all the ingredients to boot! With your permission, I’d like to link back to this post when I post about making this recipe on my blog. Please let me know if that’s alright with you. Thanks for the recipe!!
Hi Sarah! So glad you found this recipe and my blog and glad y’all enjoyed the dish! Sure, you may link back to this recipe but if you’re putting the entire recipe on your blog, I ask that you please rewrite the directions and credit back to me. Thanks!
Duh, you get FANTISTIC seafood from Florida!
Oh my gosh – I just made this and it was great! Two thumbs up and super easy to make. My husband and I like our foods REALLY spicy – so the next time I’m gonna bump up the sriracha a little bit. But it was delicious. YUMMY!
I’m so thrilled you and your husband loved this! Yes, definitely bump up the sriracha next time! I’m a wimp when it comes to spice :) hehe
It came out soooo good! my husband is still praising it this morning! and yesterday while eating it he couldn’t help but suggest that I cook it more often and that we should invite people over and cook it for them :-)
Wonderful to hear!!
Do you heat the sauce, or serve it cold? Can’t wait to make. I bought the ingredients today. :-)
I serve it at room temperature :) enjoy!
So you don’t cook at all the coconut milk, just whisk and pour over the scallops?
I am going to surprise hubby with this dish for Valentines! need to find an appetizer to match it :o)
Correct, just whisk and pour over the scallops and couscous. Hope your hubby enjoys! :)