Anyone who vaguely knows me knows that mathematics is not exactly my favourite subject. So for me to say that today was my first day of an AAT Accountancy Course should cause significant shock and impress!

To celebrate surviving day one of 33, I made one of my most favourite recipes for dinner- The Scallop BLT. This used to be Josie’s requested starter every birthday, but this year being her first of vegetarianism meant I had to come up with something similar, yet without the pig or fish. Halloumi wrapped in red pepper saw this mission accomplished!

First the meat…

Scallop BLT

Ingredients
5 (or so) delicious scallops
5 (or so) rashers of smoked bacon
7 Tomatoes ripened on the vine
5 cloves of garlic
1/4 teaspoon of dried mint
1/4 teaspoon of dried basil
1/4 teaspoon of dried oregano
1 teaspoon of crushed black pepper
Watercress

First, make your fine as hell raw tomato and garlic sauce

1. In a food processor, drop in all your garlic and mince that up. Then add your black pepper, oregano, mint and basil and combine.

2. Chuck the tomatoes in the food processor and destroy

3. Add a table spoon of olive oil and combine.

4. That’s it. You’re done. Set it to one side.

And the scallops…

1. Cut those beautiful smoked bacon rashers in half. Wrap a piece around each scallop and secure with a cocktail stick. Also dice up an extra rasher of bacon.

2. Heat olive oil on medium high in a frying pan. Throw in your diced bacon. Once it starts to brown, add your scallops. Cook for about 2 1/2 minutes on each side.

3. Throw your scallops in bacon onto a bed of Watercress. Drizzle your raw sauce over, and add a couple of slices of lemon to the side both for decoration and good use. Delicious!

And for the vegetarian counterpart…

Ingredients
A big slap of halloumi cheese
1 Sweet Ramiro pointed red pepper

And now for the magic…

1. Pre-heat oven to 190

2. Cut the head off your pepper and get as many seeds out as possible. Place on a baking tray and pop in the oven.

3. After 5 minutes, remove your pepper from the oven, and turn it over the sink- tipping out the juices. Return it to the oven, and repeat this every two minutes three times more, but on the third time remove it from the oven for good. Transfer to chopping board to cool.

4. Now to stuff! Consider the size of your pepper and cut big pieces of halloumi that will fit comfortably. If possible try to keep them quite long.

5. Now stick cocktail sticks evenly through.

6. Now slice between the sticks! You will need a fairly sharp knife, to make sure it’s a good even cut rather than a rough tear.

7. Medium heat olive oil in a frying pan. Gently lay all your halloumi pepper slices cheese side down and fry for about 5 minutes on each side.

8. Lay out on a bed of watercress and remove the cocktail sticks. Drizzle with your raw tomato sauce, and just to make sure they match your scallops perfectly add a couple of slices of lemon to the side.

And if you didn’t want to completely sacrifice the flavour of bacon, you can fry up a few surprisingly vegetarian bacon bits with the halloumi, or even just sprinkle them on the finished product as they are.

You may think there’s no real alternative for scallops in bacon, but how could you resist make any vegetarian this happy!