Wednesday Night's Dinner - Steamed Clams And Lobster Bisque.

I picked up some clams at Harris Teeter Wednesday afternoon before making the "score" of the hot burries. So, steamed clams are in order for dinner.

My aromatics:

bunch of thyme

bunch of parsley

slab of onion

garlic cloves

I stripped my thyme stems of leaves with the handy-dandy herb stripper Sister Hawthorne gave me.

And I chopped the onions and parsley and minced the garlic.

I added an extra virgin olive oil and Land o' Lakes butter to my hot pan.

Heated it to almost browning the buttah and tossed in the onions.

Thyme went in.

And lastly, add in the garlic.

You don't want the garlic to burn,

else it gets bitter.

Rinse off the clams first.

Then add them to the olive oil/butter/thyme/onion/garlic mixture.

Pour in about a cup of white wine, cover, and steam until the clams open.

Add in the fresh parsley.

Toss and serve.

I loved all the flavors in this dish - the fresh herbs, the garlic, the onion, the wine

the oceany goodness of the clams. Next time, I might add some lemon zest.

Plump, juicy little clam.

Come on. Admit it. You can see all the flavors. Next up, Lobster Bisque. If you recall from our Anniversary Dinner, we had cooked four lobsters - Larry, Curly, Moe, and Lucy. Mr. Hawthorne, Youngest Hawthorne, and I ate Larry, Curly, and Moe, so we had Lucy leftover. And Lucy is going into Wednesday night's bisque.

My start off ingredients: bacon onion garlic celery mushrooms homemade fish stock butter cream cheese heavy cream (which I forgot to put out) Sherry red pepper (for garnish) green onion (for garnish and I also forgot to put out) cayenne pepper salt and pepper

I chopped the onions, celery, and mushrooms, minced the garlic, and chopped the red pepper and sliced the green onion.

First I scissored my bacon and fried it up.

When the bacon was browned ...

... I added the sliced mushrooms.

I browned the mushrooms, then added in the onions, ...

... the celery, ...

... and just cooked for a few minutes.

I always add garlic at the very end, so as not to burn it and get a bitter taste.

A little flour went in which I cooked for a minute or two to get rid of the raw taste.

Then I slowly added in a quart of my homemade shrimp stock, letting it gradually thicken up.

I added in about 6 ounces of cream cheese, stirring to smooth it out.

Heavy cream went in for richness and bisque-ness. Here's Lucy Lobster, ready to be shelled and have her meaty wonderfulness go into the bisque.

Mr. Hawthorne broke open Lucy Lobster over the mixture ...

... letting the lobster joos drip into the pot.

Then Mr. Hawthorne extracted the lobster meat and put that in the pot.

I added the leftover clam liquid for extra flavor.

And a bit of Sherry went in because I love the flavor of Sherry in most anything, but especially in a bisque.

And here's my Lobster Bisque, with fresh parsley and scallions, red pepper, and cayenne pepper on top. Oh my. Rich. Creamy. Layers of flavors. This was thoroughly delightful.

Every spoonful had a piece of lobster in it. What a lovely meal this was.