Scallops Wrapped in Bacon with Spring Onions, Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic

Re-post from 2016. A good reminder so this will be on the menu soon.

In Dumfriesshire during half term, we walked 3 miles from our hotel on the coast to a little fishing village called Port Patrick where we had lunch in a pub called The Crown excelling in seafood.  This recipe was inspired by that.  The pub was as traditional as they all used to be, with really good food in keeping with its beautiful surroundings

Serves 4 as a starter

Ingredients
1 bell or pimento (the long slim ones) red pepper
Olive oil
2 bunches of spring onions (about 20)
4 large cloves of smoked garlic
12 scallops
12 rashers of thinly sliced streaky bacon

1.  Put the pepper in a hot oven of about 200C/390F for 20 mins or until the skin comes away. This will take about half an hour. Alternatively do this by holding it with tongs over a flame to burn the skin of the pepper. Put the pepper in a bowl with a lid, or a cover. While the pepper cools, the skin will separate from the flesh.

2.  In the mean time, slice the spring onions, and put them in a frying pan over a medium heat with a generous glug on olive oil.

3.  Wrap each scallop in bacon steaky bacon. Any excess bacon could be fried up and served alongside the finished dish.

4.  After about 4 minutes of frying the spring onions, add finely chopped smoked garlic (if using standard garlic, use 2 cloves) and cook until softened. Remove from the heat.

5.  Remove the pepper from the bowl, peel the skin away and wash away the seeds. Finely chop the pepper and add it to the spring onion garlic mixture.

6.  Put the pan back on the heat and add some oil. Fry the bacon wrapped scallops over a medium high heat.  Lightly brown the bacon wrapped scallops all over.  Scallops do not take long to cook and so the reason you have thin bacon is so that it does not take much cooking, and the scallop should be perfectly cooked when the bacon is only lightly browned.

7.   Put a spoonful of the vegetable mixture on warm serving plates, on top of which the scallop will be placed.

8.  Serve straight away.