Hotate to meshida no bataajoyu itame / stir-fried scallops and Western lady fern in butter and soy sauce

The softly mellow taste of scallops and faint bitterness of lady fern heads complement each other really well as the no-fail combination of butter and soy sauce works again here for a pair of ingredients from the sea and the land.

1/2 of recipe:
116 calories; 12.8 g protein; 2.7 g fat; 8.4 g carbohydrate; 5.7 g net carbs; 192 mg sodium (with 50% reduced-sodium soy sauce; 304 mg with regular soy sauce); 27 mg cholesterol; 2.7 g fiber


<Ingredients>

5-6 scallops (122 g in photo)
Handful meshida Western lady fern heads (cleaned & blanched, 104 g in photo)
1 small knob ginger
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter

For seasoning
1 tbsp sake & mirin (equal parts)
1/4 tsp rice vinegar
1/2 tbsp soy sauce

<Directions>
1.

Cut meshida into 4-5 cm.
Slice scallops crosswise into two, if they are thick.
Grate ginger.

2.

In a frying pan, melt butter, and saute scallops.
Flip, and saute on medium or medium low heat until almost done (turning somewhat opaque), and transfer to a plate.

3.

To the same pan, add meshida, and stir-fry.

When meshida is coated with butter, add sake, mirin and rice vinegar, and continue frying.

4.

Put back scallops, and mix.

And add soy sauce, and mix.

Reduce somewhat for a minute or two while stirring and flipping ingredients for even flavoring.

5.

Juice ginger, and mix.

Ready to serve.

<Notes>

• If you have freshly harvested meshida that day, blanching is probably not needed as prep.
• Ginger juice at the end takes away the cloying taste of butter in the final dish. if not available, squeeze some lemon for a similar effect.
• The above nutrition figures are based on data for ostrich fern fiddleheads.
• The sodium content would be lower than the above figure in the actual dish, as some sauce would remain in the frying pan.