Lobster Bisque

Recently it was my husband Peter's birthday and according to family tradition he got to pick the menu for his Birthday Dinner.

In addition to New York Strip Steak, Baked Potatoes, Homemade Onion Rings and Red Velvet Cake Peter asked for Lobster Bisque.

What the Birthday Boy wants the Birthday Boy gets!

So after a lot of preparation Peter got his beloved Lobster Bisque.

A word of warning...preparing the soup is rather time consuming. So unless you just have a load of free time to fill I would save it for those special occasion meals (like Birthdays) when you can share the richly flavored dish with friends and family.

Lobster Bisque
Serves 8
Total cost: $46.00 (appox. $5.75/person)

1 2lb. live lobster (or two 1 lb. lobsters), be sure to leave the claws bound
3 quarts water
1 cup white wine
3 tarragon sprigs or 1 TBSP of dried tarragon
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 lb carrots, peeled and cut into 2" pieces
2 celery ribs cut into 2" pieces
2 medium onions peeled and quartered
2 garlic cloves peeled
4 TBSP unsalted butter
3 TBSP brandy
1 TBSP tomato paste
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 TBSP cornstarch
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp of lemon juice

Combine water, wine, tarragon, bay leaf and salt in an 8 quart pot and bring to a boil. Put the lobster in the boiling water head first and cook for about 10 minutes with the pot loosely covered. With tongs remove the lobster from the pot and set aside in a shallow baking dish to cool. Pour the cooking liquid into a large bowl.

Once the lobster is cool enough to handle, crack the shell and remove the meat from the tail, claws and joints. Reserve the shells, but discard the lobster body. Pour any left over juice into the bowl with the cooking liquid. Cut the lobster meat into 1/2 inch pieces, cover and refrigerate.

Wrap the claw shells in a sturdy kitchen towel and pound with either a mallet or rolling pin until they broken up into 1/2 inch pieces. With kitchen shears cut the remaining shells into 1/2 inch pieces as well.

In a food processor pulse the carrots, celery, onions and garlic until finely chopped. Melt the butter in a clean pot over medium heat. Add the chopped vegetables and cook, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes or until they are soft. Add the lobster shells to the pot and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add brandy and simmer until it has evaporated. Stir in tomato paste, reserved cooking liquid and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring every once in a while until the liquid has reduced by about half, about 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Once the soup has reduced, discard the bay leaf and then with a slotted spoon put the solids (even the lobster shells) in small batches into the food processor. Puree until as smooth as possible. Force the solids through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl, pressing hard on the solids. Pour some of the cooking liquid through the sieve to extract as much liquid as possible from the solids. Discard the solids and return soup to a clean pot.

Bring the soup to a boil. Stir together 1/2 cup of soup and cornstarch in small bowl until smooth then whisk the mixture into the pot of soup. Simmer, whisking constantly until the soup gets slightly thickened. Then add the cream, lemon juice, salt and lobster meat and heat through, do NOT boil. Serve.

**The bisque can be made up to 2 days in advance. Cool the prepared soup uncovered then cover the cooled soup and refrigerate. When reheating the bisque do so over low heat, do NOT let the soup boil.

Dirty Rice

The other night I found myself faced with an interesting predicament: a pound of ground beef and no idea what to do with it.

It's seems so simple, there are SO many ground beef options out there, but none of my usual weeknight go to's were clicking.

Tacos? Out of shells.
Spaghetti? Had it last week.
Burgers? No buns.

Then I remembered a simple Cajun dish I had heard of years ago, but had never tried. Dirty rice.

On the few occasions when I've had Cajun food I have never ordered the dirty rice. It always seemed like this simpler dish that when put on a menu with Gumbo or Jambalaya gets out shined by its multi-component or roux based siblings.

So I decided to give this easy weeknight dish a try and I was NOT disappointed.

It reminded me a lot of Fried Rice...the Cajun version. The best part is it's made up of inexpensive ingredients I already had in the house. It made quite a bit and when I had some of the left overs the next day it was just as good as the night I cooked it.

Dirty Rice
Serves 6-8
Total Cost: $5.60 (appox. $.93-$.70 per person)

1lb ground beef
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1 green or red pepper, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 cups of cooked rice
1/8 cup chopped parsley
2 tsp Cajun Seasoning or Louisiana Hot Sauce
Salt & Pepper, to taste

In a large skillet over medium high heat cook the ground beef until completely browned. Add the vegetables and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Finally, stir in the seasoning, rice and parsley and serve.

Goat Cheese and Prosciutto Egg Strata

I owe my friend Nikki full credit for this super yummy casserole recipe.

When I told her I was looking for a new egg dish to serve at my Book Club meeting, Nikki came to the rescue with one of her classic tasty go-to dishes.

You assemble all the ingredients the night before so all you have to do the morning you want to serve it is pull it out of the fridge 3o minutes before you plan on putting it in the oven and you are good to go.

As easy as it is delicious.

Goat Cheese and Prosciutto Egg Strata
Serves 8-10

18 slices firm white bread (such as English muffin bread), crusts removed
6 ounces prosciutto, thinly sliced
8 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
4 ounces provolone, grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup chopped green onions
6 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil
5 large eggs
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Line bottom of 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish completely with 1 layer of bread, cutting some slices to fit. Arrange half of prosciutto evenly over bread. Sprinkle half of goat cheese and half of provolone over. Sprinkle with half of green onions and half of basil. Top with second layer of bread. Layer remaining prosciutto, goat cheese, provolone, green onions, and basil atop bread. Cut remaining bread into 1/4-inch cubes. Sprinkle over top.

Whisk eggs, milk, mustard, and salt in bowl. Season with pepper. Pour egg mixture over strata; press down on bread with spatula. Drizzle melted butter over strata. Cover and refrigerate overnight. 6

Preheat oven to 350°F. Uncover strata and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Bake until center is set, about 1 hour. Remove from oven. Preheat broiler. Place strata under broiler until top is golden, about 30 seconds.

Cut into large squares and serve.

Regent's Punch

This weekend I hosted the ladies of my Book Club for brunch. And what brunch worth it's weight in assorted pastries doesn't have a nice accompaniment of punch.

In this case, champagne punch.

Ever since the arrival of my December issue of Saveur magazine I have been compelled to try 2 of the recipes I found within.

One being their preparation of Filet Mignon with Bordelaise Sauce, which by the way I did make and it was D-E-licious.

The other being the recipe for Regent's Punch.

Seeing as up until this weekend I have never had occasion to whip up a champagne concoction in my household (my husband is a straight Heineken/Jameson man) I jumped at the opportunity to host a group of ladies who not only shared of my love of books, but also my fondness of champagne.

And seeing as I had decreed 2009 the Year of the Punch, I had to get my punch year rolling. So here it goes.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Drink-Recipes/Regents-Punch

Instead of using arrack or cachaca liquor I just added extra rum, in this case not dark Jamaican rum but spiced rum as it was what I had on hand. As for the use of a seville orange, I didn't use one. I couldn't find that specific variety of orange at my produce market so I just used the addition of a regular orange instead.

I'm Back!

It's been a while and for that I am sorry. But I got completely run over by Thanksgiving, the Channel 94.1 Diaper Drive, holiday parties, Christmas, the flu, New Years, traveling, dinner parties, a trip to DC for the Inauguration, a sick cat, a sick dog and then some more dinner parties.

I know it sounds like a lot of excuses, but it's just the bare honest truth.

But I am back.

I've been doing a lot of cooking; some good and unfortunately for my husband, some bad. I hope to have some of my winning attempts up on the site soon.

Right now I'm menu planning for a brunch I'm hosting for my Book Club this Saturday. If all goes well, I'll have some breakfast gems come out of it. I'm going to be trying out my new favorite thing, punch.

Mark my words, 2009 is the year of the Punch.

The Chinese may claim it's the Ox's spin on the dance floor, but I'm telling you, in these economic times stretching anything especially high ticket items like alcohol will become all the rage.

So let's get ready for a new year of posts, a new year of food and a new year for punch.