Because Tuesday is Lobster Thermidor Day, of course. What do you have on Tuesdays, meatloaf?
I was spared from having to commit lobster murder by the frozen seafood section of the Superstore, where good-sized lobster tails can be had for $8.99. I like to think I took that shortcut because at 5pm I found myself chatting to a friend beside the lobster tank, it was rush hour on icy roads and Mike had to go out at 6:30.
I think in reality it had more to do with my not being too keen on the killing and dismembering part; of, as Julia put it, knowing they’re done when “the long head-feelers can be pulled from the sockets fairly easily”. Less appealing were her directions to “discard sand sacks in the heads, and the intestinal tubes. Rub lobster coral and green matter through a fine sieve into the mixing bowl, and blend into it the mustard, egg yolks, cream, and pepper.”
Nah.
Julia, I adore you. I really do. You make food approachable to the masses on TV, but some of these recipes are altogether more involved than they need to be. (Case in point: strain your boeuf bourguignon to simmer and reduce the sauce, wash out the dish it was braised in, then return the beef and sauce to the dish.) Cooking your way through MtheAofFC seems far huger a prospect once you’ve read through a few of the recipes.
Besides the frozen tails vs. live lobsters cheat, I weedwhacked the recipe quite a bit. Guys, I got home from the grocery store at 5:30 and had lobster Thermidor on the table by the 6 o’clock news. Not to blow my own horn, but I’d be a pretty hot commodity if I were a 50’s housewife.
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December 08 2009 | seafood | 16 Comments »
DISCLAIMER: If you are at all weak of stomach, and/or are just sitting down with a nice scone and latte at 7 in the morning, you may want to bookmark this for later. I’ll be talking about squid guts.
I enjoy an order of calamari at Earls as much as the next guy. (Perhaps a little less… you’ll never have to fight me for it.) But it is the sort of thing it would never even occur to me to make from scratch. Which is why I enjoy, at times, being pushed off the edge of my comfort zone. This usually happens when chefs or other food writers come to town and I take care of their foodstyling for TV appearances and such.
I spent today with my pal Ron – you may know him as Rockin’ Ronnie Shewchuk, self-proclaimed barbecue evangelist and winner of I don’t know how many barbecue competitions, and all-round awesome guy. He taught me how to plank brie (I’ll show you soon, I promise! Maybe this weekend?) and how to throw chunks of wine barrel straight onto your barbecue (just lift up the grate and toss ‘em in) to easily smoke a prime rib of beef, and how you can do a whole roast on the grill by placing it on the left side but then lighting the right, so that it’s indirect heat and doesn’t burn. (I wish I had remembered my camera this morning at Breakfast TV. Wow oh WOW was that piece of meat a thing of beauty. We all just stood around and sobbed with joy at it out on the street among the commuters at 8 am.) He even has a meat thermometer that comes with a little beeper that clips on his belt and lets him know when his meat is at the exact temperature he wants it. Far cooler than an iPod, no? I like to hang out with people who have smokers and remote control meat thermometers.
On today’s agenda was calamari – on the grill. How the hell do you do calamari on the grill without all the little bits falling between the grate? I had no idea how it was going to work out, and had serious doubts. I grudgingly went to the store and bought a box of squid (easy to find in the frozen seafood section), which after leaking grey inky goo all over my (clean!) fridge, turned out to be whole. Great, an upgrade in my calamari/biology education. (Mike’s too, as we figured out how to pull the heads off, thus extracting the guts and a pretty cool looking clear cartilage, then cut off the tentacles right beneath the eyes, which were intriguingly detailed in a disturbing sort of way. Then we dissected and opened up the tube-like bodies, scraped off the purplish skin, and once the bodies were clean, scored them on the fleshier insides in a criss-cross pattern so that when they cooked, they’d sort of turn inside out and be tube-like. It sounds like an awful lot of work, but as Mike put it, it was boring, but not at all difficult.)
When it was all done, we ended up with a tidy pile of tentacles, another of tubes, and a third of guts, which we decided against feeding to Lou. (I’m not cleaning that up.) So far more squid than we needed for the show, which sent a pretty clear message to me that I should try my hand at Earls-style calamari while we were at it. What else do you do with calamari? (I know, there are a million things – salads, pastas – baby steps.) So I threw half into a container with olive oil, minced garlic and a hefty pinch of red chili flakes, and the rest I cut into rings for the battered kind. I had no dinner plans yet anyway.
As is the norm when I attempt something new, I browse around and see how other people are doing it. Some doused the calamari in buttermilk before the flour, and that seemed like a good idea. So I thought – why not let it sit in the buttermilk for awhile, rather than just dipping it, and add a minced clove of garlic to the mix as well, since buttermilk is such a great carrier of flavours? (Makes a great chicken marinade, tenderizing the meat as it adds whatever flavours you stir in.) So that sat in the fridge for the afternoon.
This afternoon included grilled calamari, which worked out just fine, didn’t fall through the grill at all (the secret is to get it really hot – not a problem with a gas barbecue) – Ron just threw them on, straight out of their oily marinade. They looked at first like they were trying to escape, but didn’t – they curled and charred and went from flaccid and grey to all spazzy-looking (the tentacles, anyway) and purple; the tubes crosshatched, grill-marked and white. It was very cool, very fast, and will definitely be fed to my vegetarian friend(s) who come for barbecues this summer.
But I didn’t think I’d like it. They looked like the very epitome of fish gum. The purple tentacles weren’t helping. I wouldn’t have even tried any had Ron not thrust a forkful at me. I fully expected to be chewing for awhile, but I wasn’t. It was fab – smoky and charred and garlicky with a kick from the chilies. And not even battered and deep-fried.
Seared Calamari with Fresh Tomato-Basil Salsa
If you don’t want to divvy the calamari onto individual serving plates, you could serve this family-style out of a larger bowl or platter the same way. Slightly adapted from Barbecue Secrets Deluxe, by Ronnie Shewchuk.
1 lb. cleaned squid, equal parts bodies and tentacles
1 Tbsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp. crushed dried red chili flakes
Salsa:
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1-2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. rice or white wine vinegar
salt and pepper
Sprinkle the squid with salt, then rinse it well with cool water. Slit the bodies open and score the underside in a crisscross pattern, not cutting all the way through the skin. Put all the pieces in a bowl, cover with olive oil, add the garlic and chili flakes, stir and refrigerate for about an hour.
Preheat your grill on high. While it’s heating, toss the cherry tomatoes, basil, olive oil, vinegar and some salt and pepper in a small bowl; toss to combine. Divide among 4 plates.
When the grill is ready, gently place the calamari on the cooking grate, taking care not to let the pieces slip through the cracks. (You could get a grill-topper designed for cooking small pieces of food, but it’s not necessary.) Stand at the grill with a pair of tongs – don’t walk away! – and turn the squid as they cook. They will need no more than a minute per side. Once opaque and char-marked (don’t overcook – like shrimp, they could get tough), transfer the pieces to the plates, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. If you like, give each plate an additional drizzle of olive oil.
Serves 4.
And then the battered stuff. It was easier than I thought, albeit messy, and Mike, a true calamari lover, loved it. I kind of did too – something I was reluctant to admit until I found myself picking at the bits in the bottom of the bowl, having finished the whole thing between the two of us in about 10 minutes. It’s light and crispy, and not at all doughy. Finish it with sea salt and if you like, a squeeze of lemon.
Buttermilk Battered Calamari
about 1 lb. squid, tubes and tentacles
1/2-1 cup buttermilk
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 cup all-purpose flour
salt and pepper
pinch cayenne (optional)
canola oil, for frying
Put the calamari into a bowl with the buttermilk and garlic; set it in the fridge for as much time as you have – half an hour or overnight.
When you’re ready to cook, put the flour into a plastic bag (the ones from the produce department work fine) and season generously with salt and pepper, and add a pinch of cayenne if you like. In a wide, shallow pan, heat about an inch of canola oil until it’s hot, but not smoking – test with a small piece of bread – if the oil bubbles vigorously around it, it’s ready to go.
Lift the calamari out of the buttermilk using your hand or a slotted spoon, letting the excess buttermilk drip off. Drop the pieces (all at once, or half at a time) into the bag of seasoned flour and shake it about to coat everything well. Drop pieces into the oil, separating them a bit as you do (you don’t want massive clumps) but don’t shake the flour off or anything. Cook, turning with a slotted spoon as you need to, until they are golden. Remove with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.
Season with salt and serve while they are still warm. Preferably with a dish of tzatziki.
Serves 4-6.
Tzatziki
Regular yogurt, preferably thick Greek yogurt, is far superior to the runny low fat or fat free varieties that are most commonly found at the grocery store. If you like, strain the yogurt through some cheesecloth for several hours to thicken it. (Save the nutritious drained-off liquid to use in pancake or muffin batter.)
1 small cucumber, peeled if necessary
1 – 2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cups good quality plain yogurt, preferably Balkan-style
salt & pepper to taste
Grate the cucumber with a box grater onto a double thickness of paper towel. Gather up the cucumber in the towel and squeeze out as much excess water as you can.
Combine cucumber, garlic, yogurt, salt and pepper in a bowl and stir until well blended. If you like, add a squeeze or lemon. The garlic flavor will intensify the longer it sits. Makes 2 1/2 – 3 cups.
Per 1/3 cup: 45 calories, 1 g total fat (0.6 g saturated fat, 0.3 g monounsaturated fat, 0.1 g polyunsaturated fat), 3.5 g protein, 5.6 g carbohydrate, 3.7 mg cholesterol, 0.3 g fiber. 20% calories from fat
One Year Ago: Bison Burgers topped with Grilled Portobello Mushrooms
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May 25 2009 | appetizers and on the grill and seafood | 26 Comments »
I know – a little ridiculous, isn’t it? Lobster? Me? On a Tuesday of no real consequence? I don’t think I’ve ever bought and cooked a lobster tail before, but found myself picking up a frozen one yesterday in order to address the issue of a glut of last year’s frozen lobster in the Maritimes (which doesn’t seem to be affecting prices on the prairies at all) on the show this morning. Marketers are calling it the new bologna. (Which, I can’t resist saying, is baloney. Bologna is selling for $2-$4 per pound, lobster is still around $30+ for the frozen stuff.)
If a couple weeks ago I went through a cake phase, I’m now tripping through a sort of dumpling phase; these food themes seem to come out of nowhere. I never plan them; if I do, they hardly ever pan out.
This week I have made peroghies, two kinds of ravioli, pork wontons, spinach pasta (I suppose that doesn’t technically count, although it was doughy) and sourdough dumplings. Am I missing something? Oh yes, my waist. Not that I had one before.
To top it off, this morning I made lobster gnocchi. Or rather I made the actual gnocchi last night, in between shifts searching in the cold, windy dark for a lost dog. I mixed the dough, rolled it into ropes, cut and rolled the pieces on the tines of a fork while talking on the phone (to a friend who kindly went out in search of said dog. No, it wasn’t Lou – have I mentioned I’m dogsitting, and currently have three in my charge? Does inhaled dog hair count as fiber intake?) It is due to this circumstance I can attest making gnocchi by hand is neither time consuming nor requires a particular degree of focus. The idea came from one of my favourite dishes at Brava Bistro. You can find the recipe on their website, but it was altogether too complicated for my level of motivation. I decided to dumb it down a little, and wing it.
I was going to make ricotta gnocchi, but the ricotta was used up in that lasagna, so I ended up throwing a few russet potatoes into the oven to make plain old potato gnocchi instead. I thought I was settling. I was not.
My biggest problem with gnocchi has always been that it’s just a little too much – too heavy, too gummy. Something I can’t eat an entire bowl of, even when I have no problem downing that much pasta. It just tends to sit in a lump in my stomach. But these were ethereal little dumplings, even eaten plain, straight out of the pot. They were even better tossed with melted butter, which is how W ate his. (After much protest, let me tell you.) But with the lobster stock, simmered down a bit and whizzed with butter? There are no words.
Seriously, I thought this would be a nice sort of thing to make for a special occasion. And it would, but it isn’t nearly as fussy as I imagined it would be.
Potato Gnocchi with Lobster
If you like, throw a handful of frozen peas into the water along with the gnocchi.
Gnocchi:
4 small-medium russet potatoes
1 large egg
2 Tbsp. cream (heavy or half&half)
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 lobster tail, thawed if frozen
1/4-1/2 cup butter, cut into bits
To make the gnocchi, bake the potatoes in a 350 F oven for about an hour, or until tender. (This keeps them from getting watery, and also retains more nutrients and potato flavour.) When they are cool enough to handle, peel them and press them through a potato ricer (looks like a giant garlic press – very effective in getting rid of all lumps) or mash until smooth with a potato masher. Stir in the egg, cream and salt until well blended, then stir in the flour. You should have a nice, soft dough – if it’s sticky, add a bit more flour, a spoonful or so at a time.
Divide the dough into 6 chunks, and roll each into a rope that’s about 3/4″ thick. With a knife or pastry cutter, chop into 3/4″ pieces. Roll each piece over the tines of a fork (I do this by rolling the back of the fork back and forth over each piece, starting at a cut side so that it grips better), then place them on a lightly floured baking sheet. At this point, the gnocchi can be covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days, or frozen.
To cook the lobster tail, put it in a medium pot with about half an inch of simmering water; cover and cook for 7 minutes. Remove the tail and set aside; continue to simmer the small amount of liquid until it reduces a bit, then add the butter and cook until it melts. To emulsify it, put it through the blender or blend it with a hand-held immersion blender – it should remain liquidy but as it cools will have a consistency closer to hollandaise. Pull the meat out of the lobster tail and chop it.
When your lobster and sauce is ready, cook your gnocchi: bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the gnocchi in batches, not crowding the pot, for about 4 minutes or until they rise to the surface of the water and puff up a bit. Remove to a bowl with a slotted spoon.
Drizzle the sauce and lobster meat over the gnocchi, season with pepper if you like, toss to coat and serve.
Serves 4 (with extra gnocchi left over).
Have I expressed strongly enough how excited I am to be sharing my starter with you? And that no one (who identified themselves, anyway) thought I was crazy? I am frantically cutting and feeding bits of it in jars that are quickly taking over my fridge like a giant science experiment. I will come up with the logistics of distribution (and try drying some) soon!
One Year Ago: Homemade Mozzarella
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March 31 2009 | one dish and pasta and seafood | 13 Comments »
My name is Julie and I have a Nutella problem.
Evidence of my use: spoons scattered all over the house. Chocolate drips on my chin. Mike is planning an intervention if he ever finds a secret stash down behind the dryer.
Today I took over traffic on the Homestretch, and it was brutal. More so for everyone out driving than for me of course, but imagine 3 solid hours of answerinng calls, taking notes from people in their cars and tracking police and city websites for collisions and other incidents, trying to organize all the info (although I kept checking them I had around 20 messages on the machine at all times, most of which I didn’t get to until after the show; sorry if one of them was you) into a cohesive traffic report with all the directions and intersections and streets and avenues right and go into the studio to do a new one about every 7 minutes. Traffic reporters are on the ball, let me tell you. Food is so much more my thing than traffic. I’m just not as passionate about a stalled vehicle blocking the off ramp from northbound 14th St. onto eastbound Glenmore.
Since the show airs until 6 it was impossible for me to get home much before 7, so a goodly wife I was not – plus I had a lot to prep for my healthy holiday food segment on Global tomorrow morning. So leftovers it was - the last of a noodle casserole I made the other day (it must have been for lunch) to use up the last of those salmon chunks, which originally had been marinated in maple syrup, soy sauce, lime juice, ginger and garlic and were quite flavourful on their own.
I decided to use it instead of tuna in a tuna-style casserole; really all I did was cook up some noodles while I made a quick sauce out of butter, flour and milk, added the salmon chunks and some frozen peas, poured it over the noodles and topped it with grated cheese and baked it. A good use of leftover salmon, I think. Maybe even better than tuna. So the last of it went into a little baking dish and into the toaster oven to reheat.
These nuts I used to make all the time, then one day I took a sabbatical from them. But do you remember how last winter I was smitten with hazelnuts? This year it’s walnuts. Which should not, by the way, ever be bitter – if they are, they are rancid. They should be mellow and sweet and wonderful. I had to make some for the show tomorrow – hopefully there will be some left in the morning.
Meringue Nuts
These nuts are lightly coated with a layer of sweetened egg white, which can carry any flavour you like. Use white sugar instead of brown, or try maple sugar if you can get your hands on some.
1 large egg white
3 cups walnut halves
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1-2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch allspice
pinch nutmeg
Preheat oven to 300°F.
In a medium bowl, beat egg white until foamy. Stir in nuts, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt, allspice and nutmeg.
Spread the mixture into a single layer on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray or lined with foil. Bake for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden. Cool on the pan. Makes 3 cups.
Per 1/3 cup: 285 calories, 24 g total fat (1.7 g saturated fat, 10.2 g monounsaturated fat, 10.8 g polyunsaturated fat), 7.1 g protein, 15.1 g carbohydrate, 0 mg cholesterol, 2.3 g fiber. 71% calories from fat
Indian Spiced Walnuts
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp. curry powder
2 tsp. each ground cumin and ground ginger
1 tsp. each coarse salt and cinnamon
4 cups California walnut halves
In large bowl, combine egg whites with spices; stir in walnuts and coat thoroughly. Coat a large, shallow baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. Spread nuts onto prepared pan. Bake at 350°F 15 to 18 minutes, until dry and crisp. Cool completely before serving.
Makes 4 cups.
Cookie of the Day: Walnut-Apricot Rugelach. I love rugelach, but haven’t made it in about a decade. Every year it’s on my to-do list. Do them with apricot jam or marmalade, and fresh walnuts. (SK has a pretty impressive-looking rugelach pinwheel cookie if you’d rather slice and bake.)
Walnut & Apricot Rugulach
From the walnut experts.
Pastry:
1 pkg (8oz/250 g) regular or light cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter, softened
2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Filling:
1-1/2 cups coarsely chopped California walnuts, toasted
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger and cardamom
3/4 cup apricot jam or marmalade
Topping:
1 egg
2 Tbsp coarse sugar
Pastry: In large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy; beat in sugar. Stir in flour until well combined. Form into a ball; cut into 4 pieces and shape into discs. Wrap individually in plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to 1 day. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before rolling.
Filling: In small bowl, stir together walnuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and cardamom.
On lightly floured surface, roll each disc into an 11″ circle about 1/4″ thick. Spread 3 Tbsp. jam or marmalade over top; sprinkle with a quarter of the walnut mixture. Cut into 12 wedges. Starting from the wide end, roll up each wedge to form a crescent roll.
Place each crescent two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
Beat egg lightly; brush over each crescent and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake at 350F until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to rack to cool completely. Makes 48 rugulach.
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December 18 2008 | appetizers and seafood and snacks | 10 Comments »
I was feeling rather uninspired today, but felt I owed it to the avocado to make an effort. Then I remembered that a photographer from the Herald was coming at dinnertime to shoot photos of W helping me make dinner, and wow, it’s fortunate that we had a nice soft avocado for him to stand on his stool and cut, but now I kind of had to make something of it. More than avocado and goat cheese on toast, anyway.
So I went to epicurious and punched in “avocado”. Then “avocado shrimp”, because I still have to make good on my promise to chip away at the freezer. And came up with this, which looked promising. As always, I tweaked it a bit, and since I couldn’t trust myself to not overcook shrimp under a broiler and my barbecue is still out of gas, I gave them a quick saute in the ever-present cast iron skillet you must be getting tired of seeing. It was pretty good; perhaps too exotic after our benign food weekend. I’m not sure, I think I expected it to be tastier than it was, and I’m not still not convinced that it wasn’t. Like it isn’t you, it’s me. Maybe I’ll take it for another spin in a few months.
Chili-Lime Shrimp with Avocado
1 lb. raw shrimp, peeled with the tails left on
1 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp.soy sauce
1 Tbsp. canola or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
1 Tbsp. lime juice
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. dried hot red pepper flakes
1 ripe avocado
chopped fresh cilantro
steamed brown or basmati rice, to serve with (optional)
Put the shrimp in a ziploc bag or bowl; add the brown sugar, soy sauce, oil, lime juice, garlic, chili powder and red pepper flakes. Stir or squish about to blend everything. Let marinate for about an hour.
Meanwhile, cook the rice and dice the avocdo, tossing with a little lime juice to keep it from turning brown.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add a drizzle of canola oil. Cook the shrimp quickly, in batches if you need to to avoid crowding the pan, just until they are cooked through. Add to the avocado and top with as much snipped cilantro as you like.
Serve right away over rice. Serves 2-4.
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September 22 2008 | one dish and seafood and vegetarian | 3 Comments »
