Going All Out

St. Valentines Day arrived once again. I saw this as any opportunity to make a fancy meal. No, I unfortunately did not have accompaniment, but that wasn't going to stop me from enjoying something delicious. Rather, it just allowed me to go all out and attempt even more elaborate dishes. I celebrate by cooking, and nothing is better to me than learning new preparations. 

I've never worked much with seafood of any sort and I've been itching to get into it for a while now. The perfect option seemed to be lobster. It's a delicacy, fit for celebration, and something completely outside of my realm of experience. I consulted with a chef friend and explored my culinary encyclopedia. The result was a 3-course meal. Garlic pasta lobster ravioli with cream sauce, Lobster à l'Américaine, and a lemon soufflé with a strawberry sauce. The main course didn't turn out quite as picture perfect as I'd hoped, (The sauce wasn't nearly the color I was aiming for), but it was delicious nonetheless.

So how did this come to be? The short answer is time. The awesome answer follows.

First course:

Pasta for the ravioli:

1-1/3 c. durum flour, plus extra for dusting

2/3 c. semolina

3 eggs

2 tbsp. finely minced roasted garlic

1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

pinch of salt

Filling:

Meat from the claws of a 2-1/4 lb. lobster

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. cayenne powder

2 egg whites

2 oz. heavy cream

flour to thicken

Sauce:

4 oz. heavy cream

2 oz. chardonnay

1 tsp. lemon juice

tip of lobster tail

pinch of salt

ground pepper to taste

Second course:

For the lobster:

4 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. finely minced yellow onion

2 finely minced shallots (about 1/3 c.)

2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped coarsely

1 large clove of garlic, finely minced

~3 sprigs of tarragon, finely minced

~3 sprigs of thyme, finely minced

1/2 c. chardonnay

1/4 c. brandy

6 tbsp. butter

tail and body of the lobster

Broil asparagus, tossed with salt, pepper and oil.

Dessert:

Strawberry sauce:

~1 lb. strawberries, de-stemmed

1-1/2 tbsp. sugar, or to taste

pinch of salt 

Lemon soufflé:

1/2 c. whole milk, plus 2 tbsp.

2 tbsp. sugar

pinch of salt

2 tbsp. flour

3 eggs, separated

2 oz. candied lemon peel*

*candied lemon peel:

1 c. finely chopped lemon peel, about 5 lemons (use organic lemons)

3/4 c. sugar

1 c. water

1/2 c. lemon juice

Wow. Remembering all the ingredients, I see why this took so long to make. Anyways, let's get into cooking procedures.

For the pasta dough, mix the flour on a board and make a nest. A nest of flour. With cracked open eggs.  If you're not comfortable mixing a dough without a bowl, use a bowl. Using just the board is helpful in the interest of keeping dishes clean though.

Mix the dough in the well, slowly incorporating more and more flour, being careful not to knock down the walls of the well and spilling your eggs all over the place. Knead for about 5 minutes until the dough is firm and uniform.

P.S. I know my picture only has 2 eggs in it. I got hasty taking pictures.

Cover and let it sit while you do a bunch of other stuff.

Start with the filling of the appetizer, as it will have to chill for a little while. Remove the meat from the claws and put in a mortar and pestle along with the seasonings. Mash it up for a while, to form a paste. Add in the egg whites and continue mashing. Transfer to a bowl, add the heavy cream and stir until very smooth. Add in flour if the mixture looks too runny. I believe I used about 1-1/2 tbsp. Mix thoroughly and place in the freezer to chill for about an hour.

Now make some preparations for dessert. The candied lemon peel and strawberry sauce, in particular.

Peel the skin off your lemons, using either a zester or knife. Be careful not to cut too deeply. You want as little of the pith (white stuff) as possible. It's quite bitter. Chop the peel up, put it in a pan with the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes. You should be left with about 8 oz. of sweet, lemony joy. Put it in a jar, cover tightly, refrigerate.

 Do something similar with your strawberries. Mash them through a sieve to extract a juice into a sauce pan, simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until reduced to a syrup-like consistency. It will have very intense flavor. Also, feel free to eat the pulp that's left in the sieve. It's still good to eat, just not great for sauce.

 You can also start prepping for the lobster sauce. Cut up the onions, shallots, herbs and all that, but also get your tomatoes peeled. To do this, flash boil them for 30 seconds and immediately plunge into an ice bath. This should make the peels come off with ease.

 Now you can start processing the beast. I must say, the lobster has been the most intimidating ingredient I've used thus far. I've never killed anything as large, spiny and clawed as this. But that's something I'm working on, and I'm glad I went through with the ordeal. One of my life goals is to make a meal completely from food that I've personally foraged, grown, or killed. There's a certain intimacy in cooking that, to myself, is enhanced immeasurably by knowing another piece of the process that brings forth meals that are all too often taken for granted.

That being said, get out your lobster, put it on a board in a baking pan (or straight onto a baking pan or a board with edges to catch water from the lobster), and place your knife tip on the back of it, right in the middle with the edge pointing between it's eyes. Stab into its head and bring the knife down the rest of the way to effectively cut it's head mostly in half and killing the lobster. Now, this part messed with me a little bit. The lobster will continue moving for quite a while, even though it's dead. If you're comfortable just not caring about movement of this monstrosity, just handle it as though it's a plaything, cut off the legs, cut the tip of the tail off, twist off the tail, and twist off the claws. Since I really didn't know what I was doing, I spent a lot of time confused at the wriggling mass of armor that I had just stabbed in the head (a few times for good measure). Eventually it will stop moving if you're willing to wait it out. As you butcher it, liquid will pour out of the lobster. That's why you have it in a pan. That water is going into your sauce later on, as is the nasty looking green stuff called the tomalley, which is actually the liver of the lobster. Yes, I know it kind of looks like brains. It's not.
Anyways, now that you lobster is dead and dismembered, cut the head portion in half lengthwise. Heat a pan with 4 tbsp. of oil in it and sear the cut side of the head of the lobster in the oil. Remove.

 Add the onions and cook until very soft, then add the shallots.

 Then the tomatoes.

 Add in the chardonnay, brandy, tarragon, thyme, and garlic. Bring the liquid to a boil. Add the lobster pieces back in, cover and simmer for about 18 minutes.
In the meantime, roll out the garlic pasta dough for your ravioli. Cut squares and place dollops of filling on them. Fold the squares in half and press to seal.

Build the sauce. Place all ingredients in a small pan and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until reduced by half.
Boil the ravioli until they float, then remove to a plate. Pan fry until golden, about 3 minutes per side.
Sauce 'em up and enjoy. They were my favorite part of this meal, quite honestly. Slight garlic flavor in the pasta, rich creamy sauce balanced by the dry white wine, and inside, mousse-like lobster-flavored goodness. Incredible little bites.

To finish the sauce of the second course, remove the lobster and add the water and tomalley of the lobster from earlier. Boil until reduced by half. Remove from heat and add the butter in small chunks, whisking constantly. Sauce is done. Plate however you see fit.

And onto dessert. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. For the soufflé, whisk the 3 egg whites to stiff peaks. I do it by hand but that's not necessary if you have a stand mixer. Bring the 1/2 cup of milk, 2 tbsp. sugar and pinch of salt to a boil. Mix the 2 tbsp. of flour with the 2 other tbsp. of milk to form a slurry in a small container. Add the slurry and candied lemon peel to the milk and continue to cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and add 2 egg yolks, whisking constantly to avoid curdling. Add in one third of the egg whites and combine rather thoroughly. This is to lighten the texture of the cream base so that it doesn't deflate the whites when combining. Then, gently fold in the rest of the egg whites. It's preferred to have streaks of egg white over having deflated egg whites, so don't feel like your mixture has to be completely uniform in color. Butter and coat some souffle dishes (or mugs in my case) with powdered sugar. Bake for 13 minutes. Remove from the oven, drizzle with the strawberry sauce and consume immediately. It's a delight. My best description of the flavor of this is fluffy strawberry lemonade. Just enough sweetness countered by a perfect acidity with clean lemon and strawberry flavor delivered in a light and fluffy texture. You'll be amazed at how much flavor is in such a seemingly light bite.
*A side note on the dessert: You'll notice I have no pictures of it.  Mine turned out quite far from perfect. While I usually leave out recipes for things I don't make properly, I still enjoyed this one enough to share the recipe even though my technique is still flawed.

I'd like to extend thanks to the Larousse Gastronomique, my chef friend Jonathan, and my neighbor Sara for making this meal possible!

Thanks for reading!