The Perfect Read this Week - Rock the Boat
Rock the Boat by Beck Corey-Stein is “Sharp, irreverent, and compulsively readable” —Lauren Weisberger
They say you can never go home again. But that doesn’t stop Kate Campbell from heading south when her picture-perfect NYC life is shattered. One moment she’s expecting a diamond and a promise — and the next she’s loading her belongings into her parents’ car and getting on the highway back to the Jersey Shore town she grew up in.
After the required wallowing period, Kate constructs a three-point plan to get her life back on track. She begins incorporating the elements of a couple local jobs and a couple local men along the way. This book is pure summer fun that will resonate especially well with readers who love a taste of small-town life.
Rock the Boat
by Beck Dorey-Stein
“[A] witty, heartfelt debut novel about a belated coming-of-age.”– The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
Full of heart and humor--and laced with biting wit--Rock the Boat proves that even when you know all the back roads, there aren't any shortcuts to growing up.
Enjoy these perfect pairings while you read Rock the Boat.
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Red Wine Pairing | White Wine Pairing |
We don’t recommend pairing red wine with our scallops recipe this week, but we do recommend a chilled red paired with summertime. One of our favorite (not-so-local) beachside destinations is Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast, which is where this week’s red pick hails from. | This Sauvignon Blanc from Sea Glass is citrusy and crisp, with the lemon leading to a nice, tart finish. It’s just the kind of white we’d pack into a cooler for a late afternoon stop at the beach if we were passing through Kate’s hometown. It’s also the perfect bottle to pair with those scallops we mentioned. |
 Seared Sea ScallopsFrom TASTE & TECHNIQUE by Naomi PomeroyScallops are a favorite at the Jetty Bar, the restaurant whose bar Kate tends when she returns to Sea Point. The establishment is no hole in the wall, and fittingly, the scallop recipe we’re sharing today feels a little bit special while remaining a seafood staple. This is a recipe worth perfecting as part of your culinary repertoire.
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INGREDIENTS
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DirectionsStep 1 Remove the side muscle, or foot, of each scallop(it looks like a baby scallop and easily pulls away) if necessary, and carefully examine all of the scallops to ensure no grains of sand are present. Gently rinse the scallops in cold water and pat very dry with a paper towel. Season the scallops evenly on both sides with the salt and pepper.
Step 2 Heat a black steel pan over high heat until very hot. Add the oil and heat until the surface is rippling but not smoking. Pour off any excess oil; there should be only a thin, even film of oil on the pan. Add half of the scallops at once. The scallops should audibly sizzle as soon as you place them in the pan. If they don’t, quickly pull the scallops out and wait for the pan to get hotter. Press down firmly with a fish spatula to ensure even browning. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until the scallops have a nice, golden brown surface on the underside. If your scallops are crowded or the pan isn’t hot enough, they will not develop this surface.
Step 3 Flip the scallops and press down again with the spatula to ensure as much surface contact as possible. Cook for 45 seconds to 1-1/2 minutes, depending on the thickness of the scallops. When the second sides are golden brown, remove the pan from the heat. The whole process should take 2 to 3 minutes. When you cut into a scallop, it should not be cooked all the way through; the middle third should still be translucent.
Step 4 For serving, consider placing the scallops atop a few dollops of Basil Pistou and finishing with roasted tomatoes, a squeeze of lemon, and a sprinkle of edible flowers. For the cookbook author’s recipe of the Pistou and Tomatoes, pick up a copy of her book. (You won’t regret it!)
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| Reprinted with permission from Taste & Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking by Naomi Pomeroy with Jamie Feldmar, copyright © 2016. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Photography credit: Chris Court © 2016 |
Taste & Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking [A Cookbook]
by Naomi Pomeroy
James Beard Award-winning and self-made chef Naomi Pomeroy's debut cookbook features nearly 140 lesson-driven recipes. Every recipe is created to take the cook's understanding of professional techniques and combinations to new levels! Readers will be able to produce simple, show-stopping meals.
Music Playlist from Beck Corey-Stein
It doesn't matter whether you wade, or cannonball, or try to sit this one out: Summer disappears while we are having too much fun. Too much boredom. Too much drama. Too much work. Too much too much. Suddenly it's another September, another sun-dazed stumble back into a more temperate reality. The impossible speed with which summer melts away is why a summer soundtrack is such a critical portal, able to instantly sling us like frisbees back into the sticky heat and breezy nights of a season long gone.
The songs I love most are the ones I listened to as I arrived and exited Sunset Boulevard — the final mile-long stretch of road that led me to Cape May Point on the Jersey Shore. Those are the notes that announced I had made it to another season of magic. The first six songs are some of my favorite June arrival songs, and the second half of the playlist are for that heartbreaking, inevitable goodbye at summer's end when we must take stock, layer on something long-sleeved, and sober up after another trip through the high season.
— Beck Dorey-Stein
Get the Music from Spotify
More from the Author
In her pre-novelist life, Beck was a White House stenographer. From the Corner of the Oval is her memoir of that time in her life during the Obama presidency. It reads like fiction for all of its fun, frankness, and drama. If you loved her style of writing in Rock the Boat, add this memoir to your TBR pile immediately.
From the Corner of the Oval: A Memoir
by Beck Dorey-Stein
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - What if you lived out the drama of your twenties on Air Force One?
"[This] breezy page turner is essentially Bridget Jones goes to the White House."– The New York Times
Against a backdrop of glamour, drama, and intrigue, this is the story of a young woman learning what truly matters, and, in the process, discovering her voice.