Lobster Thermidor

Recipe: Lobster Thermidor
Page: 234
Date Cooked: December 2, 2012

This is the last lobster based recipe in this project. And it also happens to be a pretty decadent recipe. Lobster thermidor was created in a restaurant in Paris, which was close to a theater. The recipe was created to honor the opening of a play titled Thermidor by Victorien Sardou. Jonathan Waxman's version of lobster thermidor is intended to be a lighter version of the traditional dish.

Ingredients: Lobsters (not pictured), shallots, garlic, cherry tomatoes, white wine, heavy cream, unsalted butter, Dijon mustard, cognac, chives, salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese

I brought a large pot of salted water to a boil and cooked the lobsters for a few minutes. I then removed the meat from the lobsters and diced the meat.

Diced lobster meat

I diced the shallots, minced the garlic, and halved the tomatoes.

1. Diced shallots 2. Minced garlic 3. Halved tomatoes

In a saucepan, I combined the shallots, garlic, and wine and cooked until the liquid became syrup-like. I added the cream and let the mixture reduce further. I added the lobster and let it heat through. Finally, I added the butter, tomatoes, mustard, cognac, and chives. I also seasoned the mixture with salt and pepper.

Putting together the lobster thermidor mixture

I divided the mixture into heatproof bowls and grated fresh Parmesan cheese on top of them.

Lobster thermidor pre-broiling

I put the bowls under the broiler. The lobster thermidor cooked until it was golden brown and bubbly. And they were ready to be served...

Lobster Thermidor

Ummmm...this was amazingly good! Hands down the best lobster recipe in this book! I think it's even a contender for best recipe in A Great American Cook as a whole. This dish is known to be traditional and quite extravagant. Yet, I was surprised as to how easy it was to put together. When transferring the mixture to the dishes, I noticed it was quite liquidy and wasn't sure if it would thicken up. So as an experiment, I whisked an egg yolk into one of the bowls. The bowl with the egg yolk had more custard-like texture and was definitely richer. But I have to agree with Jonathan Waxman's intro, it was nice to have a "lighter" version of this recipe. And who are we really kidding? This recipe isn't light!

Overall, amazing-ness! The recipe was delicious and I hope to make it again!

Enjoy!

Pheasant with Oyster Stuffing

Recipe: Pheasant with Oyster Stuffing
Page: 161
Date Cooked: December 1, 2012

Jonathan Waxman starts this recipe off stating how "pheasants are now plentiful in the markets." Unfortunately for me, my market didn't have any pheasants and was unable to order them in for me (which for other ingredients in the past they usually have done). Nonetheless, Thanksgiving inspiration struck and I decided to use a turkey instead. I made sure to scale up the ingredients accordingly. This recipe became Thanksgiving Part II for me. I also had to employ two substitutions: frozen corn in place of fresh corn and escarole instead of radicchio.

Ingredients: Baguette, garlic, unsalted butter, corn, salt, pepper, oysters with juices, prosciutto, oregano, sage, tarragon, escarole, turkey, onions, and Cabernet Sauvignon 

I cut the baguette into cubes and smashed 2 cloves of garlic. I melted butter in a skillet and added the garlic and baguette cubes. I sauteed the bread until golden brown. I also sauteed the corn with some butter, salt, and pepper.

Left: Sauteing baguette cubes
Right: Sauteing corn

I julienned the prosciutto; chopped the oysters; chopped the oregano, sage, and tarragon leaves; and julienned the escarole. I then combined all the ingredients together, along with some melted butter, to form the stuffing.

Oyster Stuffing

I placed the stuffing into the cavity of the turkey and sewed it up with butcher's twine. I also sewed up the neck cavity, making sure the turkey was watertight.

Stuffed turkey

The original recipe called for browning the pheasants in a Dutch oven. This wasn't feasible given the size of the turkey. So I diverted a bit on this step and browned the turkey in the oven for a bit. While the turkey browned, I cut the onion and put together a bouquet garni. I salt and peppered the turkey. I  poured the Cabernet in the roasting pan and added the onions, garlic, and bouquet garni.

Stuffed turkey with braising Cabernet

I covered the turkey with foil and roasted it in the oven, making sure to baste the turkey regularly with the braising liquid.

Finished turkey

I transferred the turkey to a platter and covered it to keep warm. I strained the cooking liquid through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a saucepan. I reduced the cooking liquid and added in butter to finish the sauce.

Reducing the cooking liquid

While the sauce reduced, I cut away the twine and removed the stuffing from the turkey. I carved the turkey. And then it was time to plate. I placed turkey pieces alongside some stuffing and spooned the sauce over the turkey.

Turkey with Oyster Stuffing

This was the perfect recipe for my Thanksgiving Part II. It was delicious. The turkey was cooked just right (whew). So it was good knowing that this recipe translated well. The stuffing was perfect! I mean what's not to love? Prosciutto and oysters with great herbs and butter - it all works. The wine reduction sauce was also a great addition. It was flavorful and light, which was good considering there was so much fat in the stuffing. All in all, it was a great recipe and coincidentally Holiday appropriate!

Enjoy!

Roasted Corn with Red Pepper Butter

Recipe: Roasted Corn with Red Pepper Butter
Page: 250
Date Cooked: November 18, 2012

The main portion of this recipe is the red pepper butter. Other than preparing that, all you have to do is roast some corn. Jonathan Waxman instructs roasting the corn with the husks. Unfortunately, due to the end of the season, I couldn't find corn still the husks. Instead I had some fresh corn on the cob. To emulate the corn in the husk technique, I roasted one ear of corn on its own and one ear of corn wrapped in foil. I figured roasted corn in the husk would be somewhere in the middle of those two points.

Ingredients: Corn, jalapeno chile, red bell pepper, butter, garlic, and sea salt

I prepared a fire in my grill and grilled the jalapeno and red pepper until blackened and blistered. I placed the peppers in the bowl, covered it with plastic wrap, and let it steam. I then peeled the peppers with my fingers, stemmed, and seeded them.

Left: Roasted the peppers
Right: Steaming the peppers

I combined the peppers with the butter, garlic, and sea salt in a food processor. I pureed the mixture until the butter was homogeneous. In the meantime, I grilled the corn.

Making red pepper butter

I removed the corn from the grill, slathered it with the red pepper and butter, and served.

Roasted Corn with Red Pepper Butter

Upon further research (i.e. Google images), I discovered that the final roasted corn in the husk product was closer to my foil-wrapped corn, which is the focused image in the final picture. The corn with the red pepper butter was quite delicious. What really worked in this recipe was the juxtaposition of the sweetness of the corn with the heat of the red pepper butter. But the best part was that there was leftover red pepper butter for future use!

Enjoy!

Curried Catfish with Apple-Corn Fritters

Recipe: Curried Catfish with Apple-Corn Fritters
Page: 212
Date Cooked: November 17, 2012

This recipe appeared to have a bit of a Southern flair to it. You have the catfish, apples, corn, and of course a fritter. This a definitely a complete recipe as well - there is a bit of a salad, an entree, and even a side. Accordingly, there are a lot of components to this recipe. I had to make one substitute, the recipe called for watercress but I used baby arugula instead.

Ingredients: Lemon, lime, apples, orange, corn, unsalted butter, Kosher salt, pepper, eggs, lager, all-purpose flour, arugula, corn oil, white wine, catfish fillets, milk, cornmeal, and curry powder

I peeled, cored, and diced the apples. I put the diced apples in a bowl and squeezed a little lemon and lime over the apples. I then juiced the orange, lemon, and lime into a small bowl and set it aside.

Right: Diced apples
Left: Bowl of citrus juices

I cut the kernels from the cob and sauteed the corn with some butter, salt, and pepper. I then let the corn cool for a bit.

Sauteed corn

I separated the eggs. I added beer to the egg yolks and whisked in some flour. I then added the corn and apples to the batter and set aside. I beat the egg whites till they formed soft peaks. I folded the egg whites into the batter and seasoned it all with salt and pepper.

Batter for the apple-corn fritters

I added a few tablespoons of the batter into hot oil for each fritter and let it cook until golden brown. I let the fritters drain on a paper towel and kept them warm in the oven.

Apple-corn fritters

I combined the wine with the citrus juices in a saucepan and let it reduce to half and turned off the heat.

Citrus-wine reduction

I put a cast-iron skillet on the stove to get hot. In the meantime, I seasoned the catfish with salt and pepper. I poured milk into a bowl. I also mixed cornmeal, curry, and flour into another bowl - seasoned with salt and pepper. I dipped the catfish in the milk, dredged each fillet in the curry-cornmeal mixture, and set it on a plate.

Seasoned catfish

I added butter to the cast-iron skillet and added the catfish fillets. The fillets fried until crispy and brown, just a few minutes on each side.

Fried catfish fillets

I reheated the citrus-wine reduction and whisked in some butter. I also seasoned it with salt and pepper.

Citrus-wine sauce

I was then ready to put it all together. I arranged the arugula on the plate and put a catfish fillet on the arugula. I spooned the citrus-wine sauce over the catfish and arranged the fritters around the plate.

Curried Catfish with Apple-Corn Fritters

Just based on the title of this recipe, I thought it was actually going to be a catfish curry. But coating the fish with the curry powder gave it a really beautiful color and was also quite simple. While making the fritters, I was a bit concerned. Before I added the egg whites, I couldn't really see how the batter was going to hold together. In actuality, they also were not difficult to make either.

So how did it taste.... It was good. The fish was cooked exactly right. The fritters were delicious. I loved the sweet and tart flavors of the apple. The first bite I took didn't have much of the citrus sauce and the dish felt flat. But when I did take a bite with the sauce it was really great. Overall, the dish was good and it looked beautiful on the plate.

Enjoy!

Lobster Salad Sandwich

Recipe: Lobster Salad Sandwich
Page: 106
Date Cooked: November 9, 2012

If you are reading this blog and are thinking, "Wow, she has gone lobster crazy!" I would have to agree. Apparently, because of last year's warm winter there are just too many lobsters on the East Coast. So at this time, grocery stores are having some intense lobster sales. Which means checking off those last few lobster recipes. You may happen to see some photos that look a bit familiar; and that is because I made the Lobster and Potato Chip Salad recipe at the same time as this one. This also happens to be the last of the 13 sandwich recipes.

Ingredients: Lobster (not shown), corn, olive oil, Kosher salt, pepper, red bell pepper, basil, white wine, tomato, and baguette

I brought a pot of salted water to a boil, added the lobster, and cooked. I removed the lobster from the pot and began cracking the shells to get the lobster meat. I diced the lobster meat and put it in the fridge.

Left: Cooking lobster
Right: Diced lobster meat

I cut the corn kernels off the cob. I cooked the corn for a few minutes with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

Cooking the corn

I roasted the red bell pepper till blackened and blistered. I steamed, peeled, stemmed, seeded, and diced the red pepper.

Prepping the red bell pepper

I blended basil, olive oil, and the white wine together to create a basil dressing. I also diced the tomato.

Right: Basil oil
Left: Diced tomato

I combined the corn, tomato, lobster, and basil oil in a bowl.

Lobster salad sandwich filling

Then it was on to assembling the sandwich. I split the baguette in half and lightly toasted it under the broiler. I topped the baguette halves with the lobster salad and served the sandwich open faced.

Lobster Salad Sandwich

Jonathan Waxman compares this to a lobster roll and I'm not sure that is a fair comparison. A great lobster is something on it own. Having said that, this sandwich was really good. It was light, fresh, and packed full of flavor. I really liked the basil-oil-white wine dressing, it worked. The sandwich works with a tried and true flavor combo - basil, tomatoes, and corn. All in all a great sandwich.

Enjoy!

Lobster and Potato Chip Salad

Recipe: Lobster and Potato Chip Salad
Page: 86
Date Cooked: November 9, 2012

As I come to the end of this project, I have been ticking off the last few recipes in each category. This salad recipe was the last of the 10 salad recipes listed in A Great American Cook. Thus having made 9 of Jonathan Waxman's salads I was familiar with his vinaigrette technique. However, the write-up to this recipe informed me that Alice Waters taught him the balsamic vinegar and olive oil base for a vinaigrette. The spin on this vinaigrette is the addition of the red pepper juices after blackening, blistering, and steaming.

Ingredients: Lobster (not pictured), russet potato, olive oil, Kosher salt, black pepper, red bell pepper, green beans, oak leaf lettuce, balsamic vinegar, and basil leaves

I brought a pot of salted water to a boil, added the lobster, and cooked for about 8 minutes. I pulled the lobster out of the pot, let it cool, removed the meat from the shells, and cut into small chunks.

Left: Cooking lobster
Right: Bit-sized pieces of lobster

I peeled the potatoes. I tossed the potatoes in olive oil, salt and pepper. I spread the potatoes on a baking sheet and baked them till golden brown.

Making potato chips

While the potatoes baked, I roasted the red pepper till blackened and blistered. I let the pepper steam in a bowl . I peeled the pepper, stemmed, and seeded it. I then cut the pepper into strips and reserved the red bell pepper juices.

Blackened and blistered red peppers cut into strips

I brought a saucepan of salted water to a boil. I topped and tailed the green beans. I added the beans to the water and cooked for a few minutes.

Cooking green beans

I washed and dried the lettuce. Tossed the lettuce with the basil, green beans, and lobster. I then tossed it all with the vinaigrette. I arranged the salad on a plate and decorated it with the red pepper strips and potato chips.

Lobster and Potato Chip Salad

The salad was really good. It felt light and fresh. There were various textures on the plate - the crunch of the potato chips and the crispness of the green beans worked well with the other components of the salad. The vinaigrette was simple and didn't overpower the lobster. My one complaint would be the size of the green beans, perhaps cutting them in half would have worked better. All in all a well-rounded salad with lots of flavor.

Enjoy!

Lobster and Tomato Bisque

Recipe: Lobster and Tomato Bisque
Page: 66
Date Cooked: October 29, 2012

Though I enjoy lobster bisque, I tend to find the dish to be a bit on the heavy side. This recipe tries to balance the heaviness of a typical lobster bisque with the inclusion of tomatoes - both red and yellow.

Ingredients: Lobster, red onion, garlic olive oil, red tomatoes, dry white wine, heavy cream, onion, yellow tomatoes, yellow bell peppers, salt, and pepper

I brought a large pot of water to a boil and steamed the lobster for 10 minutes. I removed the lobster, let it cool, extracted the meat, and reserved the shells. I also reserved the cooking liquid. I diced the lobster meat and placed it in the fridge.

Steamed lobster

This recipe required making two tomato soups - red and yellow. I first prepared the red tomato soup. I put the lobster shells in saucepan along with olive oil, minced red onion, and minced garlic. I sauteed the mixture for a few minutes. I then added the diced red tomato, white wine, and reserved lobster liquid to the saucepan.

Basis of lobster and red tomato soup

The soup simmered for 45 minutes. I strained the mixture into another saucepan and stirred in the cream and diced lobster meat; and seasoned with salt and pepper. Quick note: the redness of the soup was incredibly apparent before the addition of the cream, which later turned it a red-orange color.

Left: Lobster and red tomato soup
Right: Lobster and red tomato soup with cream and lobster

Then it was on the yellow tomato soup. I diced the onion, yellow bell peppers, and yellow tomatoes. I sauteed the onion and remaining garlic with olive oil in a saucepan. I then added the yellow bell pepper and tomatoes to the mixture and let the soup simmer for 45 minutes.

Prepping the yellow tomato soup

I then strained the soup into another bowl and seasoned it with salt and pepper. Again, here the yellow color of the soup was apparent and quite striking.

Yellow tomato soup

This bisque can be served hot or cold. I opted for the hot version and reheated both components. It was upon plating that I realized the error in Jonathan Waxman's instructions. He says to divide the yellow soup into bowls and swirl in the red soup, making a decorative pattern. However, there was much more red tomato soup than yellow. Furthermore, the picture in the book seems to indicate pieces of red tomato in the soup, which doesn't make much sense - because he instructs you to strain both soups.

Jonathan Waxman's stock photo of the lobster and tomato bisque

Given the discrepancies of the cookbook, I had to change my plating plan. I divided the red tomato soup into bowls and swirled in the yellow tomato soup. The color differential isn't as stark as the picture in the book, but I think much of that has to do with the addition of the cream as well.

Lobster and Tomato Bisque

If you look closely, you can see the yellow tomato soup swirled in there. Aside from the picture and instruction discrepancy, the soup was good. I enjoyed the acidity of the tomatoes and bell peppers in the bisque, which both lightened and brightened a typically rich soup. The flavors worked, but it wasn't the best lobster bisque I've had. I felt that a better soup could have been made with those ingredients. I guess I am a bit iffy on the final verdict of the this recipe. Good but maybe not worth all the fuss. However, I may make the yellow tomato soup portion again - it just looked so beautiful.

Enjoy!

Smoked Salmon, Quail Eggs, and Endive

Recipe: Smoked Salmon, Quail Eggs, and Endive
Page: 91
Date Cooked: October 25, 2012

The combination of potatoes, smoked salmon, and eggs is pretty typical. This recipe just ups the ante, particularly with the use of quail eggs and endive. Jonathan Waxman mentions a few locations to get quail eggs, such as Chinese supermarkets or a specialty store like D'Artagnan (http://www.dartagnan.com/). While D'Artagnan is great for many products, my advice to you is to definitely go to the Chinese supermarkets if you can. A pack of 15 quail eggs will cost you almost $9.00 from a specialty store. Yet a pack of 10 quail eggs at the Chinese supermarket cost only $1.50. A price differential you just can't beat.

Ingredients: Red potatoes, unsalted butter, salt, pepper, lemon, rice wine vinegar, olive oil, Belgian endive, smoked salmon, quail eggs, and dill

I washed the potatoes and cut them into wedges. I put butter in a skillet to melt, added the potatoes, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and put the skillet in the oven for the potatoes to roast.

Roasting potatoes

In the meantime, I prepped the vinaigrette. I juiced the lemon in a bowl, added rice wine vinegar, and whisked in the olive oil till the vinaigrette emulsified.

Making the vinaigrette 

I cut the bottom ends of the endive and arranged the spears around the plate. I spooned some of the vinaigrette onto the endive spears and placed the salmon on top of the endive. I tossed the roasted potatoes in the remaining vinaigrette and added the potatoes to the plate.

Assembling the salad

Then it was on to frying the quail eggs. I fried them in a pan with some butter, just until the yolks set.

Frying quail eggs

I placed the fried quail eggs on top of the salad and served immediately.

Smoked Salmon, Quail Eggs, and Endive

The salad was good. The salmon really shined and I enjoyed the tartness of the vinaigrette. I also have grown to appreciate potatoes in a salad, something Jonathan Waxman has done before (Warm Dandelion, Bacon, and Potato Salad). Furthermore, the quail eggs did have a different taste and texture when compared to chicken eggs.

The most time consuming aspect of this recipe for me was handling the quail eggs. The small size of the egg makes it a bit tricky. But after a few eggs, I seemed to have gotten the trick.

Overall, it was a great salad. However, I'm not sure I would go to the hassle of using the specialty ingredients if I played with these flavor profiles in the future. Perhaps a different type of lettuce would be fine and a chicken's egg would also be suitable.

Enjoy!