Another grocery store find.
The deli counter had crab cakes on sale and they were calling my name.
One potato roll
One heated crab cake
One dollop of sriracha mayo
One large tablespoon guacamole
One small handful of arugula
One chopped scallion
One thin slice of tomato
Just a drizzle of lime juice
Layer everything and enjoy
This is so simple and so fast.
Have the store steam the lobsters.
Take two dish towels.
Place one towel on your counter.
Put the lobster claws and knuckles on a towel.
Cover with another towel.
Then take your rubber mallet and bang each shell till it cracks.
Take the top towel off and you have all these cracked shells that the lobster meat just falls out of.
Take a scissor to the soft part of the tail and cut it down the center.
Pull the meat out.
One lobster takes maybe five minutes.
Use the small legs, shells and bodies for a delicious stock.
There is a kitchen gadget for everything.
This one is sixty years old.
My Dad made it because he loved quahogs.
We call it a chucker but I am sure you could find a fancy model on-line.
It opens quahogs so fast .
I keep a big bowl under the board to collect all the juice from the quahog.
Enjoy them raw on the half shell, baked, stuffed, fried, chowder and let us not forget with linguine.
Whenever I have to go to the doctors I treat myself afterwards.
Sometimes its ice cream, sometimes its a pastry but today it was lobster salad.
The meat of one boiled lobster.
Now this is my trick.
When the lobsters are on sale I have the store boil them
I take them home and get all the meat out of the shell.
Put the meat of one lobster in each freezer bag and they can stay for at least a couple of months in the freezer.
I usually double bag .
Let it sit out for a couple of hours in the refrigerator to defrost
Chop to the size you like
Add a good squeeze of lemon
One tablespoon mayonaise
One diced scallion
Salt and black pepper
Mix everything together
Treat yourself to the hottest bread in the bakery.
Today they had a soft marble rye
Place one slice of Hoffmans’ cheddar cheese on one side
Add a handful of baby spinach
Season with salt and pepper
Add six sliced banana peppers
Add all the lobster salad
Cover with another slice of warm bread
Cut the sandwich in half
Put some grapes on your plate
Sit down and enjoy a great lunch and for being such a brave girl for going to the doctors.
Okay, I found another store that had the lobster on sale.
What a great week!
I was feeling fat after I ate a delicious, fabulous, gigantic lobster BLT sandwich so I made the salad for my sister to make me feel less guilty.
2 handfuls baby arugula
2 handfuls baby spinach
2 thin slices of sweet onion
Tomato salad that consists of 10 grape tomatoes, 6 baby pieces of mozzarella, 10 pieces of cubed Italian bread, sprinkle with oregano, garlic powder and salt. Drizzle with olive oil.
1/2 cubed avocado
1/2 sliced cucumber
2 lobster tails cut into bite size pieces
2 slices of cooked crisp bacon cut into bite size pieces
4 to 6 tablespoons lemon dressing
Get a fork and start eating.
Yesterday I toasted two slices of challah bread and smeared them with butter on one side and mayo on the other. The bacon, lobster, tomato, arugula, avocado and onion followed.
I have made fried calamari bad a million times but I finally got it right.
The Crisco gives the calamari flavor and the corn starch makes it crispy.
I added the garlic because I put garlic in almost everything,
One one pound bag of frozen cleaned calamari rings
One cup os corn starch
One teaspoon salt
One teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 lemon
hot sauce
5 big tablespoons Crisco
Defrost the calamari and pat it dry with a paper towel.
Mix the corn starch, salt, pepper and garlic powder together in a bag.
Add the calamari rings and shake the bag till all the rings have a light coating on them.
Heat the Crisco in a small frying pan till it has melted and hot on medium high heat.
Place the calamari in the pan and do not let it touch so you have to work in batches.
Let the calamari fry till you see it brown on the underside and then flip over till the entire ring is golden brown.
Place on a paper towel to drain the excess oil.
Continue till all the rings are fried.
They are so crispy.
I just squeezed some lemon on mine but you can add a hot pepper relish and toss it with the calamari.
I also like it with fried onions.
Any dipping sauce is great from a tomato sauce to a chili sauce.
I seasoned the oil with a habanero pepper and it was way too hot but a milder pepper would be okay. Just mix the pepper with the cornstarch and fry it with the calamari if you like it spicy.
The lobsters were on sale last week so opportunity knocked.
I did eat two but saved the rest including all the shells.
By the way I did have them cooked at the store, I did not eat them raw.
I remove all the legs.
Clean the bodies of any meat and the delicious roe.
Pick all the meat out of the rest of the claws and tails but save the shells.
Take the shells, bodies and legs from four lobsters and place them in 10 cups of water.
Season the water with 4 heaping tablespoons of powdered chicken consommé soup seasoning .
Let everything come to a boil and then simmer down to about 7 or 8 cups of broth.
This takes about one hour.
Strain everything into a big bowl and discard all the shells.
Make sure you strain the broth well because nothing is worse then getting a shell.
Now that your pot is empty, wash it out and use it to finish making the bisque.
Melt 6 tablespoons of butter
Add one large diced onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic
Cook slowly till everything is soft.
Add 1/2 cup of flour and mix well about 3 minutes. Stir all the time to make sure the flour does not burn.
Add one small can of tomato paste and mix well
Add one cup of the broth to dissolve the paste then add the rest of the broth to the flour mixture.
Add 1 1/2 cups of cream or 1/2 and 1/2 and mix well
Melt another 4 tablespoons of butter in a small pot.
Add 2 cups lobster meat cut into spoon size pieces.
Coat the lobster with the butter.
Add 3 tablespoons lemon juice, one tablespoon diced tarragon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg.
Add to the broth.
Season now with your salt and pepper because the lobster broth can be salty.
Instead of adding more cream, thicken the soup with the instant mashed potatoes.
I add one tablespoon for every cup of liquid.
I don’t usually use the potato flakes in bisque because I like it very smooth.
Top the bisque with larger pieces of lobster.
This is a real treat and not as fattening as a true bisque but not low calorie.
I like the chunks of lobster but if you want a velvet smooth bisque just put it into your food processor till it is smooth.
The bigger chunks look pretty on top of the soup.
