Рецепт Lobster and Corn Chowder
“As
the days dwindle to a precious few”….I have to wonder why it is that from
August 1st on, everyone out East starts talking about the end of
summer! There are another 7 weeks left
but inevitably these get whittled down.
Freshmen are leaving for college the 19th. New York private school kids sports programs
gear up the same week. Egads! They may
be right! This spectacular summer, with
weather that’s kept the air conditioning off almost continuously and with
Camelot-like rain that nevers falls till after sundown, is winding down. So
it’s time to celebrate with food that has summer written all over it.
The Birthday Girl turned 15!This
past weekend we celebrated another milestone as our god daughter Olivia turned
15! So the first night of her visit, we
prepared these two dishes. The first Andrew called “Summer in a Bowl”. It's a recipe from Saveur and a chef named Cary
Wheaton who was inspired to make it on a vacation to the tiny town of Westport, Massachusetts. It features Lobster and
the fresh corn we cannot get enough of this time of year. Then it’s topped with diced slab bacon for any
extra kick of salty flavor. While I worked on the creamy sweet chowder,
Andrew and the Birthday Girl herself made an exceptional Peach Blueberry Crisp
filled with local, ripe, sweet peaches, pop-in-your-mouth tart blueberries and
a crisp topping that’s a reason to eat the dish all by itself. This recipe came to us all the way from Seattle. “The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook” (William Morrow 2012).and its author, Tom Douglas, waxed poetic
over the Red Haven Washington State peaches he used. Ours were endorsed by
Olivia’s mother, Jayne, as the best peaches anywhere in the Hamptons. They came
from Hardscrabble Farm, whose stand is at the corner of Stephen Hand’s Path and
Rte. 114, if you want to duplicate this recipe exactly. Served with a scoop (or two) of vanilla bean
ice cream, it’s a salute to an old-fashioned summer bringing up memories of sitting
on a porch watching the fireflies.
The Seafood Shop sign should read
4 for $52.00. Still a bargain!Lobster,
that luxury seafood in much of the country, is one of the most inexpensive
seafoods you can buy here. Pity the poor
lobster fisherman, 4 lobsters of about a lb. each can be had for $52.00. Sadly, Long Island Sound is no longer a
viable lobster fishing ground. As the
water temperature rises, the lobsters simply cannot survive. Yet another lesson in global warming and its
consequences! Our lobster likely hailed
from Maine. Now this dish is labor
intensive, there’s no denying it. At the
same time Andrew and I were buying our lobster at the Seafood Shop in
Wainscott, we saw that 1 lb. of Lobster Salad was priced at $65.00. Outrageous?
This is actually the low end of the lobster salad scale here where quite
notoriously one purveyor of gourmet goodies prices theirs at $100.00 a lb. But after I’d dismembered the four lobsters involved in cooking the Chowder, and badly gashed my thumb on a piece of
lobster shell, $65.00 seemed entirely reasonable to me. If you want, you can certainly pony up for
cooked lobster for this recipe. But you are going to have to ask for the shells
to make the broth.
Once
the lobster is out of the shell, the rest is relatively simple, but time is needed to get the broth made and
reduced. While that is happening you can
get everything else prepped and ready to go.
It’s well worthwhile! This is a
treat with the full of the flavor of the sea, the season’s best corn and new red
potatoes. Served with crusty bread, it made
a really satisfying supper. And for
dessert there was Andrew and Olivia’s Crisp.
Here are the recipes:
Recipe for Lobster and Corn Chowder by Chef Cary Wheaton from Saveur
Magazine.
Serves 6-8. Takes a good 4 hours to make. Worth every minute!
2 (2-lb.) or 4 (1-lb.) live Maine Lobsters
1 large
stalk celery, roughly chopped
1 medium
carrot, roughly chopped
1 sprig
fresh parsley or cilantro
3 medium
yellow onions, peeled and diced
3 cloves
garlic, peeled and minced
1½ lbs.
red potatoes, peeled and cut into ½" cubes
4 cups
fresh corn kernels (cut from about 6 ears)
Salt and
freshly ground white pepper
1. Bring a
large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add lobsters and
cook for 8–10 minutes. Remove lobsters, reserving cooking liquid, and run under
cold water. Remove meat (discard tomalley and coral) and cut into small pieces.
Return shells and 10 cups reserved cooking liquid to pot.
2. Add
celery, carrot, parsley or cilantro, bay leaf, and peppercorns to cooking liquid, reduce
heat to medium-low and simmer for 1½ hours. Strain broth through a sieve into a
large saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until reduced to 6 cups, about 10
minutes. Set aside.
3. Cook
salt pork in a large pot over medium-low heat until crisp, about 20 minutes.
Remove, drain on paper towels; set aside for garnish.
4. Cook onions and garlic in
rendered fat over low heat until translucent, about 20 minutes.
5. Add potatoes, corn, and reduced broth to onions, increase heat to
medium, and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in
half-and-half and a dash of cayenne and return to a simmer.
6. Add lobster meat
and simmer (do not boil) until heated through, 3–5 minutes. Season to taste
with salt and pepper.
7. Ladle into bowls and top with reserved salt pork. Garnish with cilantro or parsley.
- Recipe for Peach Blueberry
- Crisp from Seattle’s The Dahlia Bakery. Serves 8. Makes 1 9 inch crisp. Equipment:
- A nine inch deep ceramic dish pie plate or similar sized casserole or baking pan.
- For the Peach Blueberry Filling:
- 5 or 6 medium (1 ¾ lbs) ripe peaches, peeled
- 2 cups (8 oz.) Blueberries
- 3 tbsp. cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/8inch dice.
- 1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup (2 3/8 oz.) rolled oats
- 2/3 (3 ¼ oz.) packed brown sugar
- 2/3 cups ( 4oz.) all-purpose flour
- 6 tbsp (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter cut into ½ inch dice.
- To make the peach blueberry filling:
- 1. Peel the peaches. This is best done by submerging the peaches
- in boiling water until their skins split, about 2 minutes. Then use a vegetable
- peeler to remove the skin entirely. Cut
- the peaches in half, remove the pits and
- slice the peaches ¼ inch thick. You should have about 4 cups of sliced peaches.
- 2. Put the peaches, blueberries, sugar, butter
- and lemon juice in a large bowl. Split the vanilla beans lengthwise and use a
- paring knife to scrape out the seeds. Add the vanilla bean scrapings to the
- bowl. (You can keep the vanilla pod for an alternate use, like making vanilla
- bean sugar.) Sift the flour and cornstarch into the bowl and gently combine all
the ingredients using a rubber spatula. Set aside.
To make the Crisp topping:
1. Combine the oats, brown sugar, flour and
cinnamon in a bowl. Add the diced butter to the dry ingredients and blend with
a pastry blender on the tip[s of your fingers until crumbly.
Assemble the crisp:
1. Put the berry mixture into the nine inch dish.
2. Cover the berries with the crisp topping.
3. Set the filled dish on a baking sheet to
catch any juices that may bubble over the sides, then place in the oven and bake
for 40 to 45 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the juices are
bubbling, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time.
4. Remove from the oven and cool briefly on a
wire rack. Serve the crisp, topped with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream while still
warm.