Jumbo Scallops from Chef'd

Fasten your seat belts.  Making this dish was one heck of a adventurous trip!  

This final presentation of this dish made me feel like a talented chef at a trendy restaurant.

The final recipe I tested out from Chef'd is 

Jumbo Scallops with Wild Mushroom Risotto and Truffle Oil

I. Love. Truffle. Oil.

Enough said. Right? 

Wrong.

1. The Shiitake mushrooms did not appear as fresh as the portobello mushroom I received. I did end up discarding a soft and mushy part of one of the Shiitake mushrooms and was able to forgive the other blemishes on the mushrooms.
2.  Again, (must be a batch issue) the chives I received for this recipe were not the freshest and I had to throw away much of it due to brown, soft, mushy texture to the Chives. I was able to get enough chives for the recipe by combining the fresher chives out of the two containers I received.
3. The arborio rice did not look as expected in my opinion. It looked like a smaller grain of traditional rice rather than what I am used to seeing which looks more pearlescent (click here for wiki article & photo).  
4. I probably shouldn't have chosen to make the risotto on a 90 degree day. I essentially gave myself a de facto facial from all the steam rising from the risotto as it requires constant stirring for about 30 minutes. I had to summon my husband to take over for a bit so I could cool down as I was so overheated!
5. The real adventure began while I was making the butter seared scallops.  I melted the two pats of butter along with 1 table spoon of olive oil on high heat as instructed in the recipe.  All was, "searing well" (haha) until the final moment as I was removing the last seared scallop when the butter/olive oil mixture became over heated and smoked us out of the house!  The windows were flown open, the hot sauté pan was placed out on the deck until cooled, and sheet pans were brought out to fan the smoke out of the house. Thankfully, my 14 week old daughter is apparently not fazed by sounding fire alarms. My husband also renewed and expanded his decree that I am banned from frying foods of any kind...including pan frying.
• As a side note- I was banned from frying foods in our house about 5 years ago when I was trying to make fried pickles I accidentally overheated the oil. When I dropped in the battered pickles the oil popped up and out of the large sauce pot I was using. 
• I freaked out and went to quickly move the pot from the hot burner of our smooth surface cooktop to reduce the heat. Little did I know I moved a little too quick and a decent amount of oil slopped over the rim and literally fried the skin on several of my fingers and the oil that landed on the hot burner and ignited. 
• We ended up with a fire on our stove top, smoke grime on the wall behind the stove, stink of burnt oil permeating everything and last but not least my husband rushing in to grab the pot of hot oil (giving himself a minor burn in the process) and the hot, smoking pot (oil included) being thrown out of the slider door into the snow in our backyard.  
• I ended up with very painful burns on 3 fingers of my right hand.  My skin was literally crispy like fried chicken. It was horrifying. 
• I remember the next day going into work and floating down to the emergency room where one of the doctors there asked me what I had done and prescribed me Silvadene topical cream and daily dressing changes until healed. Luckily I have no scars from the incident. Thank you Dr. S! Thus is the story of why I am no longer allowed to fry food in the house. 
6. The truffle oil...oh that glorious, amazing, truffle oil. 

Overall impression:

The recipe had a gorgeous presentation especially with the toasted parmesan crisps which added that final touch of class. 

The overall risotto was lackluster in regards to flavor. 

I feel that the port wine would have been put to better use in my dessert wine glass than in the risotto. The small amount of port wine really did not add much flavor and I think a dry white wine would have served this recipe more justice. 

I do think that the lemon zest and juice did add a nice subtle flavor to the risotto albeit not enough flavor.   I regularly make mushroom risotto and I feel that the recipe I use is far superior and stands on its own. 

The scallops were simple in their preparation calling for 1/2 tsp of salt on EACH side of the scallops which I felt was obscene. Each succulent scallop was sprinkled with a small amount of salt on each side rather than the 1/2 tsp called for.

The truffle oil is really what made this recipe go from bland to "oh my goodness I've died and gone to heaven".  

Once the truffle oil was drizzled, the Veuve Clicquot Brute Carte Jaune poured (much preferred over a the dryness of a chardonnay) all bets were off. 

This dish became one of my favorite dishes of all time. 

Each bite was amazing.

All hail the magical powers of truffle oil.