California Spiny Lobster Bisque

Courtesy of Tom Gatch
Reward yourself after your next successful foray for California spiny lobster with this delicious variation of a favorite classic recipe.

Ingredients:
2 freshly boiled, well cooled, California spiny lobsters weighing about 1 1/2 to 2 lbs. each
1-3/4 oz. butter
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 oz. tomato paste
4 garlic cloves, crushed
A few sprigs of thyme
4-1/4 fl. oz. brandy
2 fl. oz. sweet white wine, such as Muscat
2-1/8 pt. fish stock or water
17 fl. oz. cream
Salt, to taste
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
A few sprigs of parsley, to garnish

Method:
Twist off the tails, remove the veins and wash out the heads. Remove the meat from one tail, cut it into 1-in. cubes, and set aside to use later as garnish. Chop remaining tail and carapaces into large chunks.

Place a large saucepan on high heat and melt the butter. Add the onion, carrots and garlic. Cook while stirring until the onions turn translucent. Add the chopped lobster chunks, tomato paste, brandy, sweet white wine, chopped tomatoes, thyme, cayenne pepper and salt. Stir well and add the fish stock.

Add the cream to the saucepan and allow to simmer over low heat for approximately 1 hour, and strain the broth into another saucepan (be sure to press and strain as much liquid from the lobster chunks as possible before discarding them). Whisk the strained soup vigorously until it is lightly frothy.

Ladle the soup into a serving bowl. Garnish with a few sprigs of Italian flat leaf parsley and cubes of lobster tail meat. Enjoy this elegant chowder with your dining partner on a rainy winter’s day along with a loaf of warm sourdough bread and a couple of your favorite beverages.

Oysters Rockefeller

Ingredients

• ¾ cup chopped fennel bulb, bulb only
• ¼ cup chopped leeks, green and white parts
• ¼ cup finely chopped curly parsley
• ¼ cup finely chopped scallions (green and white parts)
• ¼ cup chopped celery
• ¼ cup ketchup
• 1 ½ cups frozen spinach, cooked, drained, and chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
• ½ teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon ground anise
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• ¼ cup Herbsaint liqueur
• 1 cup (2 sticks) melted, salted butter
• ½ cup seasoned dried breadcrumbs
• 12 cups rock salt
• 6 dozen oysters on the half shell
• 12 lemon wedges

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a food processor, combine the fennel, leeks, parsley, scallions, celery, ketchup, spinach, salt, white pepper, cayenne, thyme, anise, Worcestershire, and Herbsaint. Purée the mixture thoroughly. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the contents of the food processor into a large bowl. Stir in the butter and breadcrumbs. Ensure that the mixture is well blended.

Pour enough rock salt into twelve 8-inch cake pans to cover the bottom of the pans. Arrange 6 oysters in their half shells in each pan.

Fill a pastry bag with the Rockefeller sauce and pipe equal portions of the sauce over each shell (if you do not have a pastry bag, use a large tablespoon to distribute the sauce).

Place the pans in the oven and bake for 5 minutes, or until the sauce sets.

Turn up the heat to broil and broil the oysters for an additional 3-4 minutes, until the tops are bubbling. It may be necessary to bake the oysters in batches.

Line each of 12 dinner plates with cloth napkins that have been folded into neat squares. Carefully nestle the pans of the oysters within the folded napkins. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve at once.

Recipe Details

Serves 12