Caramel-coated seafood sounds unlikely, I realize, but keep in mind this is Vietnamese caramel sauce: savory and bitter, it’s not at all like candy. Thankfully.
This wasn’t entirely my favorite way of eating scallops (panfried, wrapped in bacon, holds that honor), but we’d been looking for ways to use the caramel sauce Jon made awhile back, and it made for a very quick and interesting dinner. The sauce was made from a recipe in Andrea Nguyen’s Vietnamese cookbook
I might consider making the sauce again, but maybe with halibut instead of scallops. Or if I did use scallops, I think I’d pan-sear them instead of braising. It’s hard to resist a seared scallop. Even if it doesn’t have bacon on it.
Food on the Brain 
wow. This looks wonderful. There is a fish store on our way home from school that often has scallops…hmmmmmmmm.
Also, I just read about Joule. That looks worth exploring.
Cheers!
Patty – Joule is awesome. We should all go down for one of their Sunday dinners sometime!
I’m currently shlurping on another bottle of Gavi and wondering how that would match…
I’m thinking it would be pretty good, although the slight sweetness of the Riesling worked real well.
really interesting use of caramel sauce! we always tend to use it on fattier meats such as pork belly or fish such as catfish, but good to know you’re thinking out of the box! 🙂
Well, I can’t really take credit for the idea – thank Molly Stevens for that. I can definitely see the sauce on catfish or halibut, though. And pork is, of course, always a great choice!
I learned this sauce in a cooking class and made it with catfish. It was able to hold up to the strong flavor. Have tried it with halibut too – worked great.
BTW, were you at Fu Man Dumpling recently?
Nope, have never been to Fu Man. Why, did you see my doppelganger?