It’s definitely January. Mrs J knows this because she’s running out of ideas.

The thing is, Mrs J never runs out of ideas. Unless it’s January. Or possibly February or March. It has to do with the light, or rather, lack thereof.

Luckily, there are remedies. Friends, family – or if in dire straights, cooking apps.

This one is inspired by the Internet and turned out to be a keeper. Thanks, Internet!

Start by washing and cutting potatoes into wedges. Coat with olive oil, salt and black pepper and set in the oven to roast at 225°C for 40-45 min depending on the thickness of the wedges. The next step is taking the pits out of about 1.5dl of Kalamata olives. Then roughly chop two tablespoons of pickled red bell pepper.

Chop a large clove of garlic. Put garlic, olives and pickled bell pepper in your mixer. Add two teaspoons of Dijon mustard, two tbsp of red wine vinegar and the juice of half a lemon.

Add a couple of tbsp of olive oil and mix. Keep mixing and add more olive oil and lemon juice (and maybe a tbsp or two of water) until it’s got a saucy consistency. Taste and add salt and black pepper until it’s to your liking.

Coat some mixed salad leaves with about half of the sauce and arrange on plates. Put the rest of the sauce in separate serving trays.

Cut some small vine tomatoes in half. Coat with a little olive oil, salt and black pepper.

Sear tomatoes on a very hot grill pan and then keep warm in the oven.

Coat about 175g per person of scallops with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Mrs J keeps the scallops whole, don’t throw away the red bits!

Sear the scallops also in the very hot grill pan.

Arrange the scallops on the coated salad with the grilled tomatoes and roasted potato wedges and serve with the sauce.

Happy January Friday!