James Beard's New Fish Cookery - James Beard [134]
Strain the sauce through a fine sieve. Reheat it, add the liver, intestines, and liquid from the lobsters, the meat glaze, the sherry or Madeira, the remaining 2 tablespoons of cognac, and the pimiento. Pour the sauce over the lobster.
LOBSTER AU GRATIN
3 cups cooked lobster meat
6 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup cognac
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
Hollandaise sauce (pages 25–26)
Sauté the lobster in butter just long enough to heat it. Add the cognac and ignite. Add the white wine and cream and cook for 5 minutes. Pour into a casserole, top with Hollandaise sauce, and run under the broiler long enough to glaze. Serve with rice.
LOBSTER IN CREAM
This is very delicate and flavorful.
2 lobsters (1 to 11/2 pounds each)
6 tablespoons butter
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Paprika
1/3 cup sherry
Cream to cover
Beurre manié (page 475)
Cut the lobsters as for lobster à l’Américaine. Melt the butter in a large skillet, add the lobster, and let it just color. Season to taste, add the sherry, and let it cook down a little. Add just enough hot cream to cover the lobster, clap on a lid, and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the pieces of lobster, take the meat from the shells and put it in a serving dish. Thicken the sauce with beurre manié and taste for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the lobster. This may be served in patty shells or croustades or with rice or toast points.
VARIATIONS
Lobster in Cream, Mornay. When the lobster is cooked and removed from the cream, add 1 cup of grated cheese (Gruyère or Cheddar) and a few grains of cayenne to the sauce. Stir until the cheese is well blended and the sauce thickened. Place the lobster meat in an ovenproof dish, pour the sauce over this, and top with more grated cheese and a sprinkling of bread crumbs. Brown under the broiler.
Lobster Curry. While the lobster is cooking in the cream, sauté 3 tablespoons chopped onion in 3 tablespoons butter. When the onions are soft, add 3 tablespoons flour and 1 tablespoon curry powder. Blend well and add 1/2 cup white wine. Add the cream and continue stirring until the sauce is thickened. Arrange the lobster meat in a serving dish and pour the curry sauce over it. Serve with rice.
Lobster Hungarian. Add 1 tablespoon paprika to the sauce just before pouring it over the lobster meat.
LOBSTER NEWBURG, FRENCH VERSION
Although lobster Newburg has appeared in many French books, including Montagne and Salles’s, it is definitely an American dish. It was originally named for a man named Wenburg, not Newburg, so the story goes.
There are two different theories about the preparation of a Newburg. The French is a little more deft than the American, so I give it first.
1 lobster (2 to 3 pounds)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2/3 cup white wine
1/4 cup brandy or whiskey
11/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup bouillon (fish or meat stock)
Beurre manié (page 475)
Cayenne pepper
Cut the lobster in sections. Heat the butter and oil and sear the lobster, seasoning it to taste while it is cooking. When the shell has turned red — in about 3 minutes — remove the lobster and add the white wine and spirits to the fat. Let this cook down to half its volume. Add the cream, lobster, and bouillon. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the lobster and take the meat from the shell and arrange it on a serving dish. Let the sauce cook down a bit and thicken it with beurre manié. Add a dash of cayenne and taste for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the lobster and serve.
LOBSTER NEWBURG, AMERICAN VERSION
This is our version of Mr. Wenburg’s dish.
11/2 cups cooked lobster meat
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brandy
1 cup heavy cream
3 egg yolks
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Cut the lobster meat into large pieces and sauté in butter for 5 minutes. Add the brandy and blaze. Mix the egg yolks and heavy cream together and heat in the upper part of a double boiler, stirring constantly until the mixture coats the spoon. Add the lobster and heat