Seared Scallops with Bacon and Saffron Rice

So my friend Jean Marie also has a food blog (http://platedperfection.blogspot.com/) and she made some really tasty looking scallops last week. Granted she owns a catering company and I just cook for family and friends, but I decided to give it a try. Hers was also MUCH healthier than mine, but I just had to use bacon.


Ingredients:

1 package of saffron rice ( I love saffron but it is too expensive so I use packaged rice flavored with real saffron)
10 sea scallops
2 tablespoons of chives, chopped very fine
1 bunch of asparagus
5 pieces of bacon, crumbled
1 tablespoon of reserved bacon grease
1 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoons of flour

Prepare the saffron rice according to the directions on the package. This takes about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile:

Cook the bacon in a pan.  Remove bacon from pan and allow to rest on a plate lined with paper towels. Reserve about one tablespoons of the grease.  When the bacon is cool enough to handle, crumble the bacon into small pieces.

Steam the asparagus for about 5 minutes. Chop it into 1/2 inch pieces and set aside.

 In a large skillet, heat the  olive oil and the bacon grease in a pan over medium high heat. Pat the scallops dry and sprinkle them with the flour. This will help them get really brown. Carefully add the scallops to the pan.  Cook for 5 minutes and then turn them over and cook an additional 2-3 minutes. Remove scallops and keep warm.

Stir the chives and the asparagus into the rice. 

To plate, divide the rice between the plates.  Place the scallops on top of the rice and sprinkle the crumbled bacon over the top.