Eating - Jason Epstein [31]
I discovered my favorite lobster dish a few years ago in a book called Les Dimanches by Joël Robuchon, the French genius endowed with the minimalist culinary instincts of a haiku master. It is an utterly simple preparation which magically intensifies without violating the lobster’s unique essence. Robuchon prefers Brittany lobsters over the American variety, but this is mere chauvinism, for, except that the European lobster shell is blue and the American shell is greenish black, there is no discernible difference. Both turn red in the pot and taste the same. Equally fanciful is his tender description of lobster lovemaking when the female has molted but the male is still in his armor, and of the lobster’s suicidal affection for the conger eel. There is nothing fanciful, however, about his poetic treatment of lobster in Sauternes.
ROBUCHON’S LOBSTER IN SAUTERNES
For two as a main course at lunch, or for four as a first course at dinner, you should boil two pound-and-a-half lobsters in lightly salted water for three minutes, cool them under cold water, and remove and return to the pot the large claws and knuckles for three more minutes. Then remove and cool the claws under cold water, crack them open with the back of a heavy knife, and extract the meat as nearly intact as possible by wiggling the smaller of the two pincers until it breaks away. Discard the legs, and set the bodies and tails aside, along with the claw meat. In a heavy cocotte just large enough to hold the two lobster bodies and tails, melt a half-stick of butter and soften a handful of diced carrots. Then chop and add two or three shallots, and when they are soft, pour in three cups of good but not the most expensive Sauternes and a cup of orange juice, a thin slice of fresh ginger, julienned, and a good pinch of the best saffron, with just enough sea salt to bring the flavors together. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil, and poach the lobster bodies in the covered cocotte for three minutes. Turn off the flame, and let the cocotte sit, covered, for four minutes. When you lift the lid, the aroma will delight you. Remove the bodies, and save the upper part for bisque or discard. Warm the reserved claw meat in the Sauternes mixture without cooking it further, and remove the meat from the tails, saving the shells for bisque if you are so inclined. The meat should be rather firm but not tight. Cut it neatly into one-inch segments, and on a luncheon plate reconstruct the tail halves in their original curved configuration (in the shell, if you like) so as to surround the claw meat, and nap with the reduced and strained Sauternes sauce.
LOBSTER BISQUE
The best lobster bisque I have ever tasted comes from the Seafood Shop in Wainscott on Long Island. Their classic recipe yields thirty quarts and calls for ten pounds of lobster meat, four pounds of onions, two bunches of flat parsley, one pound of butter, one quart of sherry, a tablespoon each of white pepper and celery seed, the “guts”—i.e., the tomalley and coral from the cooked lobsters—eight quarts of water, one pound of lobster base (a commercial product, an intense reduction of lobster shells and vegetables), one pound of cornstarch, eight quarts of heavy cream, and three bunches of scallions. A quart of this rich bisque will serve four. Given the superiority and convenience of the Seafood Shop bisque, I no longer make my own, but when I did, I boiled a three- or four-pound lobster for fifteen or so minutes in just enough water to cover and a glassful of white wine, extracted the meat, cut it in one-inch pieces, and broke the shells into small pieces under a dish towel with a mallet. I melted a stick of butter in a four-quart kettle and sautéed a cup each of chopped carrots, onion, and celery until softened, then I added the lobster water, plus an