April 28, 2017 Dinner - Broiled Lobster tails with baked potato and salad

April 28, 2017 Dinner- Broiled Lobster tails with baked potato and salad

Today was hectic as I was on deadline to file a motion and Reply in my water case appeal.  I started working early and had my favorite new drink to activate my body and mind, a couple of oz. of heated milk, a packet of Carnation Swiss Miss cocoa, a large coffee from the coffee maker and a little hot water to fill the mug and emulsify the cocoa.

The drink kept me going until around 3:15 when I finished the edit and sent the final draft to my client for approval.

I called Suzette and asked wha she wanted for dinner.  No thought, so I suggested lobster and champagne.  She agreed immediately to that, so I took the four Lobster tails out of the freezer to thaw.

I then started looking for something to eat.  I quickly decided on the last lamb chop and tzatziki from last Monday’s dinner.

I got the motion and reply filed at 4:50, went to the bank and deposited a couple of checks, and drove home by 5:30.  I checked the wine fridge and found a chilled 2012 Gruet G25 Blanc de Blanc that I put in the freezer to chill further.

I then poked some holes into four russet potatoes and baked them at 375 degrees for an hour.

It was a cold wet day and we had a fair amount of steak and bones left from the two rib steaks we grilled this week and I had bought onions at El Super (3 lb. for $.99) to make onion soup, so I diced five cups of onions while I watched the news and put the onions into the large pit, that I had cleaned after using it to make the spaghetti sauce.  I followed Julia Child’s recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking and simmered the five cups of onion covered in the large pot with 6 T. of butter and 2 T. of olive oil for about 30 minutes.

When Suzette arrived at around 6:00, we had a cocktail and watched the news until 6:45.  I told her that one of my fondest memories of New York was going to Mr. lobster that was a cafeteria that served a lobster dinner of salad, baked potato, and a boiled lobster for $4.95 in the 50’s.

So she decided to make a lobster salad.

It was drizzling, so Suzette said she wanted to broil the lobster tails inside in the oven.  I said, “that is the way mother used to cook lobster, so we agreed on broiling.  Then Suzette said, “I want to baste the lobster with tarragon butter.”

So I picked a basket of lettuce and five sprigs of fresh tarragon from the garden and chopped the tarragon.  Suzette melted some butter and added the tarragon and basted and broiled the lobster tails.  She then cleaned the lettuce and arranged it on pasta bowls,, split two baked potatoes and put on each on the pasta bowl.

Suzette then said she wanted some avocado on the potato, so we cut open two old avocados and found just enough meat that was not ruined to make a respectable slice of avocado for each potato.

Suzette then said, “I want a Russian dressing for the salad.”

I went to the fridge and fetched the small container of dill and lemon mayonnaise yogurt sauce that I had made for the last batch of artichokes and a bottle of catsup and handed them to Suzette, who mixed some of each in a shallow bowl to make a Russian dressing.

Suzette then used two baked potatoes to hold the four lobster tails in position on a cookie sheet and basted them with tarragon butter and broiled them in the oven for about ten minutes, basting them occasionally.  When they were cooked but not dried out, she removed the tails from the oven and put a piece of foil over them to allow them to conserve their juices as they cooled.  We then shelled the tails and lay them on the salad and drizzled Russian dressing over the salad.

I then poured the bottle of G25 Gruet Blanc de Blanc and we had a fabulous dinner.  The wine had a slightly tinny taste as if some of the Chardonnay fruit had begun to decay but it had great bubbles and a very pleasant taste overall.  Not your average bottle of champagne.  It may be that what I was Tasting was the absence of Pinot noir grapes in the wine.  Blanc de Blanc is usually all Chardonnay, so there are no notes of Pinot Noir.

After dinner we decided to add the lobster shells to the beef broth that was simmering on the stove to enrich it and add some lobster flavor.  After an hour of cooking the broth we decided to finish the Onion Soup.  I added 3 T. of flour to the onions and cooked them for three minutes to cook the flour.  Then we added ½ cup of dry vermouth and the 2 quarts of beef and lobster broth and stirred the soup to eliminate lumps.

I turned off the heat and in a few minutes took the pot of soup to the garage.

Bon Appetit