Sunday, January 31, 2010

Rosie Makes Lobster Bisque.

Please let me introduce you to Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo. They were the featured guests at my birthday party the other day. Mr. Hawthorne had called Food Lion and asked them to hold 4 lobsters for him. He'd pick them up on his way home from work. Food Lion assumed he wanted them cooked. No. We wanted them squirming. Youngest Hawthorne, Mr. Hawthorne, and I each ate one lobster. I saved the fourth for moreovers. And I saved the carcasses.
(I love this picture.) I melted a bit of butter in my pan, heated some olive oil, and added the lobster carcasses, ...
... crushing as best I could with a wooden spoon.
Mr. Hawthorne took the meat out of the last lobster.
And I added the fourth carcass to the pan.
After crushing and cooking for about twenty minutes to release all that lobster flavor, I added in a bottle of chardonnay to deglaze the pan.
I added in enough chicken stock to cover.
Mr. Hawthorne used scissors to cut the meat out of the legs. I let this barely simmer for about 45 minutes.
While the carcasses were simmering, I gathered the rest of the ingredients for my bisque:
 2 carrots 
2 celery stalks 
1 medium onion 
thyme 
bay leaves
 3 Roma tomatoes
Slice the carrots and celery and chop the onion.
I wanted to peel my tomatoes so I dropped them into boiling water for about 20 seconds.
And the peel is easily removed.
Slice the tomatoes and squeeze to remove the seeds.
Here are the ingredients for the bisque: 
tomatoes, peeled and seeded
 2 carrots, sliced 
2 celery stalks, sliced
 onion, chopped 
2 TB tomato paste 
1/4 cup rice 
1/2 tsp hot paprika 
pinch cayenne pepper 
2 TB brandy
 1-2 cups heavy cream
1 sweet potato, diced
 bay leaves
 thyme
 (The rice and sweet potato are for a natural starch thickener.)
I heated my pan, added some olive oil and butter, and started adding my veggies.
You know I love my action shots, so bear with me.

Saute everything for a couple of minutes.
Add in brandy.
Using colanders, pour the lobster stock into the veggies.

Discard carcasses.
Bring this to almost a simmer and cook for another 45 minutes. Remove bay leaves and thyme sprigs.
I added about 1 1/2 cups cream.
Now it's ready for my immersion blender.
We needed a deeper pan for the immersion blender to work, so I transferred the bisque.
Thank you, Mr. Hawthorne. This is the meat from one lobster.
Saute in a little butter just to heat through.
My bisque (far right) wasnt as thick as I'd like it, so I'm making a roux (middle). Lobster meat is on the left.
I melted 1/2 stick of butter and added 1/4 cup flour, stirring to cook.
Cook for about a minute to get rid of the raw taste of the flour.
I added about 6 cups of my lobster stock to the roux to get the consistency I wanted. I had a little over a quart of the lobster stock left which I froze, saving it for another day.
Serve with a sprinkling of lobster on top.
Oyster crackers would be nice too. This was very rich and velvety with an intense lobster flavor. Dare I say luxurious and decadent?

Dancing In The Dark.

Back in July 2008, right after Cyd Charisse died, I posted a clip of her and Fred Astaire and Dancing in the Dark. I so wanted to post the Steve Martin/Gilda Radner video from Saturday Night Live but couldn't find it, but I did ask if anybody could find it to please send it to me. And today, "Steve" sent it to me. Thanks, Steve! I appreciate it. Enjoy! Steve Martin/Gilda Radner Dancing in the Dark video.

Rosie Makes A Pasta And Carrot Sauce Dish Thanks To Reeni. Heart.

Remember those 10 pounds of carrots languishing in my crisper drawer? I think I might have just found our lunch today.
There is a lovely food blog I frequent - Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice, penned by Reeni. (keyboarded by Reeni?) {My children all took keyboarding in school, not typing.}
I didn't follow Reeni's instructions exactly, but, you already know that.. I used about 1.44 pounds of carrots, a bunch of garlic cloves, and a big sprig of thyme.
I peeled, trimmed, and sliced my carrots and mixed carrots, thyme, and garlic, with a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Toss to coat.
Spread into baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.
These are the carrots after 25 minutes. I tossed them, returned them to the oven, and cooked for another 25 minutes.
Here are the carrots after 50 minutes.
I have a Magic Bullet and I have a regular size blender. I really need something in between. I don't like to use my blender, since it's an attachment for my mixer and it's a pain in the ass to haul down from the overhead cabinet. I ended up doing this in batches in the Bullet.
Anyways, I pureed the carrot/garlic/thyme mixture along with some cream and grated Parmesan cheese.
I cooked some WHOLE WHEAT fusilli pasta al dente. Yes, Ticky, I'm looking at you. And I added a few glops of the carrot mixture along with some of the pasta water.
And here is my version of Reeni's Bugs Bunny Pasta.
Feel free to grate more Parmesan cheese over top. And thank you Reeni, for a lovely, different pasta dish. Marion had some of this and approved of it. I don't think she would have known it was a carrot sauce if I hadn't told her. It was sweet and earthy. We all enjoyed this very much.
I had leftover carrot mixture, so I put that into an ice cube tray and froze it for later use. I'm thinking ravioli filling. With a sage/walnut/cream sauce.