We are into our lobster cycle. That starts with one large lobster. In this case a 3 lb. lobster from Ta
Lin. The first night, July 4th,
we broiled the lobster with butter and lemon slices and each ate one-half of
the tail. The second night, July 5th,
Suzette and Mellissa, ate the large claws with tabouli salad. The third step is that I picked the meat out
of the smaller claws and removed the hairy gills and I then made a stock with the shell and meaty scraps that
were left. I left out two critical steps
this time, which was to roast the shell parts in the oven and to put some white
wine into the stock. Instead I made the traditional mirepoix, slicing up
one medium onion, two cloves of garlic, three carrots and about ½ cup of fennel bulb and simmering that
mixture with the lobster shell parts for about 1 ½ hour.
The lobster bisque we used is
a recipe from the Gourmet Cookbook. The body
of the soup is a cream sauce made with 6 cups of lobster stock and a roux made
with 4 Tbsp. of butter and ½ cup of rice or potato flour. Since our stock did not have as much flavor
because of the lack of roasting and white wine, we improvised by adding only 5
cups of stock and then adding about ½ cup of amontillado sherry and salt and
white pepper and a dash of nutmeg and a dash of paprika. After about 45 minutes of constant stirring the
soup base thickened and we added 1/ 3 cup of lobster meat and ¼ cup of heavy cream
and 2 Tbsp. of cognac. Finally, the soup
tasted delicious. So I opened a bottle
of Wellington 2009 Marssane and made toasted cheese sandwiches with Dubliner
Cheddar Cheese on slices of German Sourdough rye bread.
Later in the evening I ate a slice of BD cake with
Rocky Road ice cream.
We still have about 1/3 cup of lobster meat for a
lobster and salmon omelet and ½ of the stock, so the general rule that one can
make four meals from one lobster is still correct: roasted, salad, bisque and
omelet, which makes that $35.00 price tag look a lot better.
Bon Appétit
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