Recipe for Sauteed Scallops

I love seafood. I don't like just any type of fish, but I do like some fish like flounder, red snapper, and I love shrimp and scallops. My family isn't much into seafood, but I do try to offer them seafood at least once a month. I feel it is important to have seafood. I would eat it at least once a week if my family would be more receptive to it.

Today I will share a recipe for sauteed scallops. It is very important that you do not overcook scallops because they will get tough. You only need to cook scallops for about 5 minutes and they will be done to perfection. If a recipe calls for bay scallops you can use sea scallops if that is what your grocer's seafood department has, and vice-versa. If your recipe calls for sea scallops and you only have bay scallops, they are interchangeable. In this recipe I just refer to the scallops as "scallops" and not sea or bay scallops.

Here is what you need to prepare my recipe for sauteed scallops:

1 skillet for sauteing
2 pounds of scallops
1 package of shake and bake for fish
2 or 3 shakes of pepper
2 or 3 shakes of paprika
2 tablespoons of juice from a real lemon (not the bottled stuff)
2 sticks of butter
1/2 cup of buttermilk

Here is what you do to prepare my recipe for sauteed scallops:

Heat up the skillet with the butter. Allow the butter to melt and begin to sizzle of medium low heat; add pepper and paprika to the butter. Don't let the butter turn dark in the pan. If the butter turns dark it is burning and you don't want to burn the butter. Unwrap the scallops and run them under warm water to wash them. Then let them soak a few minutes in the buttermilk. Take the scallops out of the buttermilk and place in a bag with shake and bake coating mix.

Now place the coated scallops in the hot butter. Sautee for 2 to 2 and 1/2 minutes on each side. Don't let the time exceed 5 minutes total, or they will get tough. Plate the scallops and pour a small amount of the butter from the pan onto them. Squeeze lemon juice on top. That's it! Serve with corn and tomatoes, or your favorite salad, and baked potato. This recipe may also be good for people with diabetes.

Enjoy!