Cranberry Red Onion Glazed Bacon Snuggled Sea Scallops

What happens when you mix savory and sweet Slow Jams Cranberry Red Onion jam with smoky bacon and giant sea scallops?  Magic, that’s what!  With a short list of ingredients, you can conjure these up in no time, for an enchanting Tuesday dinner.     

Recipe…

2 lbs Sea Scallops

1 lb Bacon  

½ Jar Slow Jams Cranberry Red Onion Jam

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Mini wooden forks/toothpicks

If your scallops are fresh, place them in the freezer for up to an hour.  If they are frozen or still thawing, that’s fine – they will cook in the oven perfectly.  You sort of want them semi frozen (not rock hard) or not completely de-thawed, because scallops cook very fast and can become chewy if overcooked.  To combat this, we suggest this method of preparing your scallops. 

Place wooden forks or toothpicks in a glass filled with water.  This will help keep them from burning when you are broiling your scallops.  The mini wooden forks work best because they are a bit sturdier than toothpicks, but work with what you have.

Lightly grease a large baking pan with olive oil.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Season scallops with salt and pepper.  Cut bacon strips in half and wrap each scallop with a piece of bacon.  Secure the bacon wrapped scallops with the mini forks or toothpicks and place on baking sheet. 

Bake the scallops on the top rack of the oven for 15 minutes.  Remove pan from oven and turn on the broiler. Brush the scallops with Slow Jams Cranberry Red Onion Jam and return to the oven.  Carefully broil scallops until bacon is crispy – this will not take long, perhaps 5-8 minutes.  When bacon has crisped up, remove the scallops from the oven and again brush with Slow Jams Cranberry Red Onion Jam.  Serve immediately, with jam on the side.     

Jalapeño Poppers with Strawberry Jam

Slow Jams Strawberry Jam is the perfect ingredient to balance the heat of the jalapeños in this dish.  With the crispy bite of bacon, the creamy smoothness of cream cheese and the sweet strawberry finish, these jalapeño poppers are like little bullets of edible dynamite!   

Recipe…

12 Jalapeños

8 ounces Cream Cheese, Softened

1 lb. Bacon

½ Cup Slow Jams Strawberry Jam

Remove stems from the jalapeños and cut in half lengthwise.  Remove the seeds from the jalapeños and any white membrane that remains (this is where all the heat comes from.  If you would like your poppers hotter, keep some of white membrane intact).

Fill each jalapeño half with cream cheese.  Cut bacon strips in half and wrap a piece of bacon around the jalapeno so it’s completely covered.  Try to keep the bacon ends on the  bottom of the jalapeño so they do not open up during baking.  If you would like, insert a toothpick through the jalapeno and the bacon to keep the popper together.  Place poppers on a sheet pan and heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Cook poppers from 15-20 minutes until bacon is cooked and crisp.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes (cream cheese filling will be extremely hot!).  Use strawberry jam for dipping.  You may also dollop jam onto a platter and place each popper on top.

*Slow Jams Tip: it is helpful to use kitchen gloves/latex gloves when working with the peppers, so the capsaicin doesn’t get all over your hands.  Be sure not to touch your eyes, face or any other body part until you know your hands are capsaicin free (it can burn!).