Scallop (and Squid) with Fennel and Rocket - a Random Recipe

Squid....why did it have to be squid. of all the ingredients on this earth (and sea) it had to be squid.

This months random recipe challenge at Belleau Kitchen was a stroke of genius evil. Instead of being trusted to pick our own random recipe, this month someone else had to pick it, namely another food blogger. Seriously how am i meant to chea...take part honestly with all this suspicion floating around. I can just imagine our host sitting there watching us all whilst stroking a white cat and sniggering evily.

So then on with the challenge, I was paired with Lucy at the Kitchen-maid blog, 12,000 miles away in New Zealand, after a few tweets I ended up with James Martin's  My Kitchen recipe book and then ended up with his scallop and squid salad.

Now its quite appropriate that this was a James Martin recipe because this dish encompasses my heaven and hell foods and if you watch Saturday Kitchen you will know what I mean. But I was commited to braving it and getting on with recipe....then i went to the fishmonger.....

...and there it was glistening, slippery and slimy with its gelatinous eye staring at me from its icy pit, tentacles waiting to strangle me to death if I even attempted to buy it...so I bought some scallops and legged it.

Fine I'm a wuss but I couldnt ruin some quality scallops with squid and it tasted very nice without it.

Scallops, Fennel and Rocket salad
Ingredients

2 small fennel bulbs
8 large scallops
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
75g rocket

Dressing
20g dill, chopped
15g parsley, chopped
15g coriander, chopped
zest and juice of 2 limes
1 chili, deseeded and chopped
1 tbsp allspice
75ml extra virgin olive oil

Method
Slice off the root and thinly slice the fennel bulbs, place into a large bowl.
Prepare and mix the dressing ingredients together and set aside.

Scallops
The book is a bit vague on how to cook scallops properly, this is the best way I've read on how to cook them:

Heat a pan to a very high temperature
Drizzle the scallops with oil and season, make sure they are well coated and then place the scallops in the pan one at a time in a circle around the side of pan, start a timer when the first one goes in.
Once one and a half minutes passes, turn over the first one you placed in the pan and then turn over each scallop in the same order they went in.
Once another minute and a half passes then remove the first one you put in and so on... this should ensure they are all cooked evenly and for the same length of time and should help you keep track.

Add the scallops to the fennel along with the rocket and dressing
Toss together to make sure all are well coated.

Serve and enjoy