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?