Hanging with my sister

Tags

backyard, dessert, lobster, postaday2016

Yesterday afternoon, my mother, my husband and I ventured out to my sister’s to have dinner at her house. We had the luxury of sitting outside in the back, the bugs weren’t biting, we had a nice breeze keeping us cool and we felt hidden away from the rest of the world.

Our restful afternoon gave us the energy to take care of the dinner preparations.

Dinner was simple; a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad, boiled lobster and roasted baby potatoes.

We started with the lobsters and the roasted potatoes because they were piping hot, we saved the salad to act as a palate cleanser if you will, because a birthday dinner isn’t complete unless you have dessert. We wanted to truly appreciate our dessert, so the fresh tasting salad cleared the rich lobster and potato flavors away from our palates. 

This beautiful dessert is called a Sainte Honore, we bought it Cannelle Patisserie in Jackson Heights Queens. I have made it myself in the past, this one is excellent and minus the hours of work, all I had to do was sit back and enjoy. It’s a dessert made from two different doughs, one puff pastry dough and a flaky pastry dough, two different cremes, a vanilla pastry cream and creme chantilly all tied together with molten caramel. I have burned myself working with the caramel each time I had put this cake together. It’s always great to find one from a patisserie that tastes as good as homemade. My fingers appreciate it, lol.
 

Lobsterfest in Astoria

Tags

food, lobster, postaday2016

  
On our last day in New York, my mother and my cousin treated us to lobster with steamed baby potatoes. My husband and I arrived early to help because lobster as we enjoy it is a family affair. Before I get into describing the sauce and the slaughter, I have to brag about my mother’s butternut squash soup, it was delicious. She had roasted the butternut squash while she sauteed tons of onions and garlic, after she had added the roasted squash, she pureed it to a beautiful thick consistency, it was a delight to eat right before the lobster, giving us a nice warmth in the belly, setting up the perfect conditions to thoroughly enjoy the lobster feast to come.

   
 
   
 
As you can see, the slaughter is pretty brutal, my cousin wanted to be the one to lead the lobsters to their destiny, I don’t mind doing it, the method is very quick, a decisive plunge into the head with a very sharp knife and it is over for the lobster. We prefer to roast our lobsters after drizzling olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika over the tender meat in a 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes for 21/4 lb lobsters. I wish that I hadn’t forgotten to take pictures of the famous sauce, it is a beautiful sauce, white with red dots throughout, the red dots are the lobster roe simmered in the heavy cream. However if you look closely at the pictures, you can see the sauté pan filled with sauteed shallots, reduced to a syrupy consistency after stirring for about ten minutes over medium high heat about a cup of white wine and 3 tablespoons of white vinegar, you can also see the cartons of heavy cream, what I neglected to show were the images of lobster eggs, they are a rich dark green and when you break them up with a fork and whisk them into the hot cream and shallot mixture, they become these multitudes of red dots which give the sauce the loveliest taste, you can’t go back to drawn butter once you eat lobster with this sauce, it just isn’t the same.

We had steamed baby potatoes, which eaten with the sauce, is a perfect compliment to the sweet lobster meat. I personally love heaping spoonfuls of sauce over the lobster tamale, the insides of the lobster, because it becomes something rich and decadent on the tongue, as food critics like to say, it has a great mouth feel and the taste is just out of this world. Words honestly can’t describe how delicious it is, you just want to continue sucking and finding every bit of lobster goodness possible, I eat lobster as if it is the last meal I will ever eat, I become an absolute mess, licking every single finger, making the loudest noises while I lick everything and suck up all of the juices. My barbaric behavior at the table is why I never order lobster at a restaurant, I keep my nonexistent table manners at home. LOL

This was an excellent day for us, not so much for the lobsters.